Common Pinball Themes - What Attracts You?

Pinball elitists will always say that rulesets, ball flow, and table goals are far more important than aesthetics, but if a machine is just plain ugly, it doesn't speak well for its other elements. A pinball machine's visual theme can be anything, from movie licenses and comic book characters to sports and abstract artwork. But there are several themes that have become quite common over the years. I would love to know which table you think is best out of these sub-categorized visual themes, if only to separate the players from the posers:

POKER
[Examples: Jokerz!, Asteroid Annie and the Aliens, World Tour Poker]

GOLF
[Examples: Tee'd Off, No Good Gofers]

POOL
[Examples: Big Shot, Cue Ball Wizard, Sharkey's Shootout, Eight Ball Deluxe]

SOCCER
[Examples: World Cup Soccer '94, Flipper Football]

RACING
[Examples: High Speed, Taxi, Victory, NASCAR]

HORROR
[Examples: Tales from the Crypt, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Haunted House]

CIRCUS & CARNIVAL
[Examples: Cyclone, Funhouse, Cirqus Voltaire]

SCIENCE FICTION
[Examples: Transporter the Rescue, Xenon, Black Hole]

MEDIEVAL FANTASY
[Examples: Swords of Fury, Catacomb, Mephisto]

ANIMATED COMEDY
[Examples: The Party Zone, Dr. Dude]

These are just a few of the most common themes that came to mind. Despite some major gameplay differences, I hear people comparing stuff like Eight Ball Deluxe and Cue Ball Wizard just based on theme. I'd like to hear why people think "this" shouldn't be compared to "that", or why one game of a particular theme is drastically better than its contemporaries, etc.

What do you think?

I was watching one of those collector shows, and they were discussing the value of pinball machines in the EM era. Due to technical constraints, and perhaps a lack of imagination, there are very few whose rule sets and layouts really stood out. Therefore, value is largely determined by how appealing the theme and artwork is. Not surprisingly, pretty and/or sexy girls rank the highest. Some of the more nostalgic themes are also more desirable, such as a tables that show social activities specific to a then current, now bygone era.

I've been a fan of horror ever since I was a kid, movies, books, comics, anything in fact. So yeah, I feel drawn to the horror themes. But themes aside, I like tables with lots going on, like ToM, for instance. Tables like Black Hole, just don't hold my interest at all.

A lot of the theme based discussions on this forum are because of the limited titles that will be made. If FS makes 40 or 50 tables, then there is most likely limited opportunity for more than one table with a similar theme. This leads to debate over comet vs cyclone vs hurricane. We assume that we will most likely get one, and we each pull for our favorite. And the preference might not be on which has more varied shots or the superior art or flow. I might have an attachment to a table just because it was at my local pizza joint or that a friend owned one when we were kids. So I think you will have a hard time separating pinheads from posers based on their preferences.

Kolchak357 said:

A lot of the theme based discussions on this forum are because of the limited titles that will be made. If FS makes 40 or 50 tables, then there is most likely limited opportunity for more than one table with a similar theme. This leads to debate over comet vs cyclone vs hurricane. We assume that we will most likely get one, and we each pull for our favorite. And the preference might not be on which has more varied shots or the superior art or flow. I might have an attachment to a table just because it was at my local pizza joint or that a friend owned one when we were kids. So I think you will have a hard time separating pinheads from posers based on their preferences.

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Sorry, when I said "separate the players from the posers", I was referring to the machines themselves, not the people playing them. Players being the games that look AND feel the part, while posers would just be machines that are visually appealing but don't convey their theme well through actual play, ya know?

But you hit the nail on the head. I think what I'm trying to get out of the discussion is which table of a certain theme should be featured in TPA, possibly to the detriment of a similarly themed rival machine. For instance, I know we're getting No Good Gofers, but hopefully that isn't to suggest that we would never get Tee'd Off, since I like Gottlieb's take on the golf theme more anyway (on which I may be in the minority, I know).

Sorry about that. I get what you are saying. Some are so hard to choose. If you are talking horror...I can't choose between Scared Stiff, Haunted House, and BS Dracula. I want all three very badly for different reasons. I think Drac is the most challenging with the best shots, Scared Stiff is one of the most fun pins ever created with its art and call outs, but Haunted House is a childhood favorite of mine with a super backglass and great atmospheric sound. It's like choosing between your own children.

I dont think the theme has ever attracted me, its always been the gadgets,toys,ramps wichever little world under the glass that looked more fun. I didnt really now about rules I just wanted the most fun for my hard earned quarters

Kolchak357 said:

Sorry about that. I get what you are saying. Some are so hard to choose. If you are talking horror...I can't choose between Scared Stiff, Haunted House, and BS Dracula. I want all three very badly for different reasons. I think Drac is the most challenging with the best shots, Scared Stiff is one of the most fun pins ever created with its art and call outs, but Haunted House is a childhood favorite of mine with a super backglass and great atmospheric sound. It's like choosing between your own children.

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Agreed on all points. Haunted House still rates as my third personal favorite, just behind Swords of Fury and Xenon. But I would definitely want Scared Stiff in TPA at all costs. Bram Stoker's Dracula is great fun, too, but I'm not getting my hopes up for it, since it probably doesn't top FS's priority list for licenses or Williams tables in general.

I'd probably be more into horror themed tables , but TPA did those more recently , and I have another 2 weeks to wait , to enjoy Monster Bash and 3 weeks to wait on Creature from the Black Lagoon , Im somewhat tempted to buy Devils Crush on the PSN store to keep me busy , but i will wait it out. It's not as long as a wait as Twilight Zone at least. (lets hope FarSight has all versions ready to go for that on the same month )

As a kid, I would always gravitate towards licensed machines due to my familiarity with the characters. Pins like Superman and Baby Pac-Man were awesome. (I was only 5, no accounting for taste)

My proclitvities haven't changed much so when heavy hitters like Addams Family and Indiana Jones came out I was hooked. Seeing as how any new tables are licensed properties, my tastes are still being catered to!

When I was a child, I was sometimes drawn to pinball machines from the name alone. Since I liked Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's _lost World_, I liked playing the pinball machine Lost World even though there was no relation. I also liked playing the Middle Earth pinball game by Atari for the same reason.
I think I tend to be attracted by science fiction and fantasy themes. I'll throw in Haunted House. I used to play Eight Ball Deluxe, but I found the theme to be mundane. I'll probably buy the Harley-Davidson game sim, but I likewise find the theme not of particular interest to me. I'd probably tend to like themes in horror, science-fiction, and medieval fantasy from the list in the opening post.

Not sure that there's one particular theme that I go for, although vaguely fantasy themes often inspire the best art IMO.

I'm not that keen on sports or gambling themed games (I prefer Pin*bot to Jackbot for example) but I still play them. I've never been tempted to own one though.

I think I'm more attracted to good art in general than to any particular theme. That said, I've always liked the science-fiction/space themes.

I kind of appreciate it when a table doesn't go for the old exploitative tactic of putting scantily clad women everywhere, though it's not a dealbreaker or else I'd never play much pinball!

Also, circus/carnival/amusement-park themes just go really well with pinball. You can riff on weird carny games, rides, unusual feats and freakish clown characters, all of which lend themselves well to a silver ball shooting up ramps and knocking toys around.

Matt McIrvin said:

Also, circus/carnival/amusement-park themes just go really well with pinball. You can riff on weird carny games, rides, unusual feats and freakish clown characters, all of which lend themselves well to a silver ball shooting up ramps and knocking toys around.

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Of course all of that is true, which makes it funnier that I so often despise carnival-themed tables...

I'm a big sucker for many of Bally's sci-fi/fantasy themed tables from 1980 and 1981. The art/sound package on pins like Fathom, Centaur, Xenon, Medusa and Flash Gordon is so good and intersting to me that I gotta play them. Even a strange table like Spectrum really draws me in because of its beatiful artwork and awesome sound.

...Now, as for specific games, in the categories I mentioned liking above, I don't have much to offer beyond things that are already either in TPA or slated for it. Space Invaders has a great SF/horror theme but is unlikely for obvious reasons mentioned earlier.

I've always liked the art on all of Atari's old pins, like The Atarians and Superman, though I realize they're unlikely gets because of the twisted history of Atari's IP, and because they seem to have a reputation as more posers than players, to use the terminology above. Atari in its classic days had a great art department in general; I always loved their 2600 game-cartridge box art, which promised so much more than the games could usually deliver.

Centaur is one that I'd like to see just because of its incredibly strange metal/leather/biomechanical-fantasy artwork, though I have no idea whether it plays well.

George Opperman did the art for those tables. He was amazing.

Too bad he died so young but he certainly left an imprint.

Matt McIrvin said:

Centaur is one that I'd like to see just because of its incredibly strange metal/leather/biomechanical-fantasy artwork, though I have no idea whether it plays well.

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It plays just as good as it looks! Probably the most enjoyable of all that era of Bally pins. 5-ball multiball in '81 is pretty astounding.

Matt McIrvin said:

...Now, as for specific games, in the categories I mentioned liking above, I don't have much to offer beyond things that are already either in TPA or slated for it. Space Invaders has a great SF/horror theme but is unlikely for obvious reasons mentioned earlier.

I've always liked the art on all of Atari's old pins, like The Atarians and Superman, though I realize they're unlikely gets because of the twisted history of Atari's IP, and because they seem to have a reputation as more posers than players, to use the terminology above. Atari in its classic days had a great art department in general; I always loved their 2600 game-cartridge box art, which promised so much more than the games could usually deliver.

Centaur is one that I'd like to see just because of its incredibly strange metal/leather/biomechanical-fantasy artwork, though I have no idea whether it plays well.

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Agreed on all points, and yes, Centaur plays just as good as it looks. It's a true classic Bally. I doubt we'll see anything from companies outside the Big Six, so Atari probably wouldn't make the cut anyway. I hope we get a handful of Data East and Sega tables from the Stern umbrella license, especially Phantom of the Opera, Jurassic Park, and maybe Goldeneye.