Top Pinball Machines of All Time

Best Pinball Machines
  1. Medival Madness
    Medieval Madness is a Williams pinball machine released in June 1997. Designed by Brian Eddy and programmed by Lyman Sheats, Medieval Madness had a production run of 4,016 units. It was an immediate critical and popular success, earning well on location and achieving widespread popularity among collectors.
  2. Attack From Mars
    In this game, Martians began to invade the Earth, and it’s up to the player to destroy the Martian fleet, save all the major cities, and then head off to Mars to destroy the Martian empire and conquer Mars.
  3. Twilight Zone
    Twilight Zone is a widebody pinball machine, designed by Pat Lawlor and based on the TV series of the same name. It was first released in 1993 by Midway (under the Bally label). This game is part of WMS’ SuperPin line of widebody games alongside Star Trek: The Next Generation and Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure
  4. The Addams Family
    The Addams Family pinball machine is the best selling pinball machine since the 1930s, having sold 20,270 units. Manufactured by Midway (under the Bally name), it is a solid state electronic game. It was based on the 1991 movie of the same name, and features custom speech (mostly drawn from the movie) by the movie’s stars, Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston.
  5. Indiana Jones
    Indiana Jones pinball is a tribute to the saga of Indiana Jones and it holds in one game all four successful movies dedicated to the George Lucas’ character. In fact on the playfield there is an area dedicated to each of the four episodes: so one part is reserved for ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’, one part for ‘Temple of Doom’, another one to ‘Last Crusade’ and finally one part dedicated to the last title: “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.”
  6. White Water
    White Water is a 1993 pinball game designed by Dennis Nordman and released by Williams. The theme is based on White water rafting, which is reflected in the game’s ‘wild’ ramps and very fast gameplay.
  7. Tales from Arabian Nights

    Tales of the Arabian Nights is a 1996 pinball machine produced by Williams. The game is based on the stories of One Thousand and One Nights and features a blue jinn. The marketing slogan is “Your Wish is Granted”.
  8. Funhouse
    As its title suggests, the game is themed after the concept of a funhouse, a walk-through amusement park featuring many attractions.
  9. Theater of Magic
    Theatre of Magic is a pinball machine from March 1995, manufactured by Bally Manufacturing Co. This game was designed by John Popadiuk and features many of his design staples such as magnets, a bash toy, and elaborate ramps. Theatre of Magic is based on an unlicensed magic theme where the goal is to perform eight different magic tricks and then complete a rather simple wizard mode. There are numerous side goals such as spelling “Theatre” and advancing the clock to Midnight Madness (not to be confused with the midnight madness featured in some other Bally/WMS games), as well as a video mode featuring a virtual pinball game.
  10. Cirqus Voltaire
    Cirqus Voltaire is a 1997 pinball game, designed by John Popadiuk and released by Williams Electronics Games. The theme involves the player performing many different marvels in order to join the circus. Some of the captivating features include a neon light running along the right-hand ramp, a pop bumper that rises up from the middle of the playfield at certain times, and a mini-playfield at the top of the center ramp with a magnet to catch the ball for locking. The most notable feature is the Ringmaster, a head that rises at certain times and makes cracks against the player.
  11. Fish Tales
    Fish Tales is a fishing-themed pinball game released by Williams in 1992. It is one of the top 20 most produced pinball machines of all time, selling more than 13,000 units. The game’s theme is fishing, with a general goal of catching as many fish and telling the biggest lies about their size possible. The machine’s backglass is topped with a plastic fish that thrashes its tail when the player achieves certain goals, and the players launches balls with an autoplunger shaped like a fishing rod.
  12. Cyclone
    Cyclone is a pinball machine released by Williams Electronics in 1988. It features an amusement park theme and was advertised with the slogan “It’ll blow you away!”. The game should not be confused with the Gottlieb pinball machine Cyclone from 1951.
  13. Whirlwind
    Whirlwind is a pinball machine produced by Williams in 1990 and was one of the last Williams System 11b games. The game features a whirlwind theme and was designed by Pat Lawlor.
  14. Hurricane
    Hurricane is a pinball machine released by Williams Electronics in August 1991. It was designed by Barry Oursler as the third game in Oursler’s amusement park themed pinball trilogy. The first being Comet, released in 1985, and the second being Cyclone, released in 1988.
  15. Ripley’s Believe It or Not
    This Stern machine was created by Pat Lawlor in 2004 and was inspired by the “Ripley’s Believe it or Not” books, museums and other types of exhibitions. The machine encourages players to journey into the world of the strange and unusual with a deep ruleset and plenty of unique toys, including a Temple full of rewards and a head that can capture the ball.
  16. AC/DC
    AC/DC is a pinball machine manufactured by Stern Pinball based on the Australian band of the same name. Designed by Steve Ritchie, it was released on March 1, 2012.
  17. Junk Yard
    Junk Yard is a pinball game released by Williams Electronics in 1996. The game was advertised with the slogan “The meanest game in the whole darn town.”
  18. Pin-Bot
    Pin-Bot is a pinball machine released by Williams in October 1986. It was designed by Python Anghelo and Barry Oursler.
  19. Bride of Pin-Bot
    The Machine: Bride of Pin*Bot is a 1991 pinball game designed by Python Anghelo and John Trudeau (Dr. Flash), and released by Williams. It is the second game in the Pin*Bot series, and is the last game produced by Williams to use a segmented score display rather than a dot-matrix screen.
  20. Checkpoint

    Checkpoint is a 1991 pinball machine released by Data East. It featured the first dot matrix display ever incorporated into a pinball game. For Checkpoint, Data East used a “half-height” DMD. By way of comparison, Williams later produced machines with standard DMDs that were twice the height. Checkpoint also features video mode minigames on its display.
  21. Eight Ball Deluxe
    Eight Ball Deluxe is a pinball machine from April 1981, manufactured by Bally Manufacturing Co.
  22.  Taxi
    Taxi is a pinball machine designed by Mark Ritchie and Python Anghelo. It was released in 1988 by WMS Industries.
  23. Gilligan’s Island
    Gilligan’s Island is a Midway pinball machine released in May 1991. It is based on the television series of the same name and the first Williams WPC machine that was released with a high resolution dot matrix display.
  24. Comet

    Comet is a pinball machine released by Williams in June 1985. It was designed by Barry Oursler and was the first in an amusement park themed pinball trilogy followed by Cyclone in 1988 and Hurricane in 1991.
  25. F-14 Tomcat

    F-14 Tomcat is a pinball machine designed by Steve Ritchie and released by Williams Electronics in 1987. It features an F-14 Tomcat theme and was advertised with the slogan “It’s fast. It’s furious. AND IT FIGHTS BACK!”.

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