Venom Premium Pinball Advantages

There are two major advantages of the premium on Venom. The first is the Spider-Man Doppelganger 3-bank of roll-under targets. This is basically a bank of hanging targets that swing out on the right side where the ball passes under them, kind of like a one way gate. This is something that’s never been done before, so it’s a very unique. The video below shows it in action.

The other thing that’s unique to Venom is the rotating ramp in the middle of the playfield that rotates to make it return to different places or to lock balls. This also hasn’t been done before, though the concept of returning the ball to different places is not new. It is usually done via divertors. So while cool, it’s also a little overengineered to a degree.

What’s crazy is that the premium is so much cheaper than the LE. The LE version is $13k now, which is ridiculous to have it be $3500 more expensive than the premium.

Venon Pro Pinball Advantages

The biggest advantage the pro has is that it features the same ball locking mechanisms that the premium and LE feature. By far the biggest feature on the machine, it’s a cool feature that returns the ball very quickly and stores them for multiball. It’s called the Symbiote containment system, and each side holds 3 balls.

It’s also significantly cheaper at $2500 less than the premium.

Should you buy Venon Pro or Premium pinball?

With Venom, I think that the clear answer is to lean towards the pro. With the premium features not being that overwhelmingly good like some other premiums, you might as well save the money towards other things.

Plus with pinball prices falling currently, the less money you have into the game the better. You can always upgrade to the premium later if you decide you really like the game, and chances are the difference will be less than $2500 considering the initial reception of the game.

Foo Fighters Premium Pinball Machine Advantages

Probably the thing that gets the most attention is the new ball saver, the Overdrive post, also nicknamed the Deadpost. While not fancy, it’s something that’s never been seen in a pinball machine before. The video below shows it:

Basically, it saves the ball by bouncing it up to the right flipper.

The next feature the premium has is the Area 51 upper playfield. Like most upper playfields, it’s not super game changing, but still a nice addition. Luckily it doesn’t get overused because the shot to get it up there is fairly difficult. You also get an extra flipper with the playfield which is nice.

The last major difference is you get a custom sculpted Overload plastic toy. You can get some good visuals of it from this video:

Obviously doesn’t normally have the legs but you get the picture. You can see the upper playfield pretty well too.

There’s also the Foo Fighters van and an Overlord magnet with the premium. Neither are major features but still nice to have.

Foo Fighter Pro Pinball Advantages

Obviously the biggest advantage is price. At $2500 cheaper, it’s a significant savings. The game also plays faster without the upper playfield. It’s a good way to play the game without having to break the bank. Some games it’s obvious to go with the premium (like AC/DC) but others like Foo Fighters, there’s not a huge disadvantage going with the pro. I think with Godzilla there was a more pronounced difference between the games.

Should I buy Foo Fighters Pro or Premium?

I think with Godzilla pro vs premium, I recommended to go with the premium if you have the extra money or are limited on space. I think with Foo Fighters I would lean more towards the pro just because I don’t think the extra money buys you as much fun as it did in Godzilla.

There is a secondary option though that wasn’t available with Godzilla, the used market. The market was so constrained during Godzilla production that used machines were going for more than new in most cases. However right now you can pick up used Foo Fighter premium machines for $500 to $1000 off list off the used market. That might be the best way to go if you have one locally, that way the price premium isn’t so high. Also, just know if you buy a new premium, you’re probably going to lose $500 to $1k right off the bat once you open the box, whereas Godzilla you could just play without taking a hit automatically. The pro will also take a hit but not as big, plus there aren’t as many used pros for sale at the moment.

Godzilla Premium Pinball Machine Advantages

So what advantages does the premium offer? The biggest thing is probably the collapsing building. Rather than just a stationary building, the premium has a building where you can can lock the balls on top and it can raise and collapse to release the balls for multiball. It’s a really cool effect and having played both of them, it’s the #1 one thing I would look at as an advantage.

The second biggest thing is probably the bridge. On the pro, the bridge is just stationary. On the premium, the bridge can collapse, which is a cool effect. Not as impressive as the building but still a great addition.

The last big thing is the MechaGodzilla. It has a magnet on it that is used to start multiball which is pretty awesome. It also has rotating targets to hit along with it. Both of these are superior to pro.

What else does the premium have? Most of the other changes are aesthetic in nature. The video below goes into pretty good detail:

Godzilla Pro Pinball Machine Advantages

So what advantages does the pro offer? Mainly, it comes down to price as it’s $3000 cheaper than the premium. The rest of it really comes down to what it does as well as the premium. It shoots as well as the premium, and the ruleset is identical. So if you’re actually playing the game, you won’t really notice the differences that much after you’ve played a bunch of games.

Having played both a decent amount, this would be my advice. Basically, if you have limited room and the extra $3k sitting in a pinball machine won’t hurt your finances, then going with the premium isn’t a bad idea. It’s a very popular machine and longer term it will probably continue to be desirable.

Should I buy a Godzilla Pro or Premium Pinball Machine?

If you have a lot of room for pinball machines or have a limited budget, going with the pro so you can buy more games or save money is probably the right call. I typically go for the pro version of games unless there’s some overwhelming reason to buy the premium. For example, I’ve bought AC/DC Premium but Avenger Infinity War Pro and Iron Maiden Pro. In all those cases, I just felt that AC/DC was the only one that offered the compelling reason to upgrade (moving bell, multicolor leds, drop targets, lower playfield, etc). I don’t think that the Godzilla premium has a huge advantage over the pro so if I were to buy one I’d probably go pro unless I got a good deal on premium.

MM vs AFM Playfield

On the surface, it looks like MM wins this hands down. I think I would kind of agree that Medieval Madness is more loaded on the playfield overall. I’m not quite sure though that MM shoots quite as well as AFM, the shots are a little steeper and don’t flow quite as well, plus the trolls in the middle are more annoying than fun most of the time.

Basically, the castle is a better toy than the saucer, and the catapult/tower are better than anything else Attack From Mars has, but the combos you can do on AFM are superior to the ones you can do on Medieval Madness. I think the art is overall better on MM.

MM vs AFM Rules

Straight away, Medieval Madness has a deeper ruleset than AFM, no question. However, that doesn’t necessarily make it better as I think Attack from Mars is a lot less wood choppy. Why do I say that?

• Castle scores more points than anything else whereas AFM is more balanced scoring wise
• You have to hit each shot 9 times instead of 3 which would seem like an improvement in difficulty, but some of the things to do multiple times (like trolls) are not that much fun
• MM is essentially hit every shot 9 times and destroy the castles 5 times, where as AFM has better variety of objectives to get to the wizard mode (5 way combo, super jackpot, total annihilation, etc)

Basically, even though MM should be a lot harder just looking at it on paper, in reality it doesn’t play out that way because you can stack multiballs to continually castles in Medieval Madness whereas in Attack From Mars you can only destroy the current saucer. That plus the fact that AFM has a wider variety of goals means it’s actually easier to get to Battle For The Kingdom than Rule the Universe.

Which is better for home use?

This one is kind of a toss up. Like I mentioned above, MM has better toys and a more extensive ruleset, but AFM is slightly harder and smoother to play. I don’t think you can go wrong with either of them honestly, both of them have the same drawback for good players in that they’re too easy for long term play.

I would just go with whatever theme you like the best of the two and whichever one you can afford. AFM is the cheaper game by a slight amount though if more Medieval Madness remakes are made it’s possible that it will be cheaper.

Attack From Mars is probably a little bit easier for the novice player to get into. While hitting the castle is pretty straight forward in MM, the rest of the game isn’t as clear.

Why isn’t there a Harry Potter Pinball Machine?

While nobody knows for sure, the rumor has been for 10+ years that JK Rowling associates pinball with gambling and doesn’t want to license it. Whether that is true or not, nobody knows for sure, most of the time the real reason is that the license is too expensive or doesn’t come with enough assets to make it worth it.

Like when Stern did their first Avengers Pinball, none of the voices of the actors were used due to cost. And the original Back to the Future game didn’t use Michael J Fox on the backglass because of the cost. So it may be as simple as the license is too expensive for everything.

Who is rumored to be making a Harry Potter Pinball Machine?

At first, a long time ago, Jersey Jack Pinball was rumored to be making Harry Potter pinball. That rumor though has turned out to be false (at least so far). More recently though, in the past year or two, Stern has been rumored to be making it in connection with Kapow games (who specializes in rare unique licenses). When or if that happens though remains to be seen. For sure it’s not coming out in 2023, Stern’s lineup is already packed with games this year.

There is a virtual game shown below though that shows what might be done if one were to come to market, it’s pretty awesome.

Located on main street in Grain Valley, it’s super clean and very safe place for the whole family to play pinball. There’s even some arcade games for kids who get tired of playing pinball.

Main Street Pinball Lineup

My son wanted to go there for his birthday, so we headed out there one Sunday afternoon (their hours may be different now, I think I saw that they shortened some days). I believe it was $20 for all day pinball, a total steal with the games they had on hand. In the front room they had Dialed In, Willy Wonka, GnR LE, and Halloween. All the newer games were in great shape. Some of the older games (like Batman, some of the older solid state games) could use a flipper rebuild but they were still very playable.

In the back, all the newest Stern’s were there. Godzilla, Rush, Avengers, etc, all in top shape. Even older Sterns like Avatar and Ghostbusters were there. From American Pinball there was Houdini and Hot Wheels.

Normally after about an hour or two I get tired of playing game but the variety was so nice here that staying 3+ hours was no problem.

Parking is easy, we actually just parked right in front of the building. Very easy and convenient.

As you can see from the pictures, it’s very nice inside and has a lot of great games. There was a long row of EM’s but I didn’t see anyone playing them really while we were there. Unfortunately there weren’t a lot of the best Gottlieb pinball machines.

Highly recommended that you check this out if you like pinball. Great location, just a short drive over to Main Street Pinball in Grain Valley, MO from Kansas City.

Mandalorian Pro vs Premium Pinball Machine

There are two major differences between the pro and premium machines that the buyer has to consider:

• First, the premium has a moving upper playfield with two flippers
• Two, the premium has an additional 180 ramp

Having played both of them a lot, I think that both of those features are worth the extra money. There are some other differences like the Grogu magnet, but I don’t consider that to be that important honestly. The premium also has upgraded metal habitrails instead of plastic, but that also isn’t a big deal to me.

Buying the Mandalorian Pinball Machine

The Mandalorian Pinball Machine is available at a bunch of dealers and possibly used. I recommend buying it from Home Arcade here:

The Mandalorian Pinball Machine

They’re usually cheaper than most dealers and are good with shipping. I myself bought my game used off location where it was being used in a bar. Was a little dirty with some broken pieces, but I’ve got it back going again.

The Playfield and Gameplay

At first glance, the Brian Eddy designed playfield of The Mandalorian seems pretty tight up close. There’s a scoop on the left, the horseshoe scoop ramp, the center ramp shot, the right ramp shot, and then the loops and some stand-up targets. Once you play it and get it rolling, you’ll find that the shots get easier and you can really combo the playfield well. Initially though the shots are tight. On my particular game, the cover over the right ramp was broke so I had to 3d print another one in order to get the ramp to work correctly.

The hand-drawn artwork is really good, both on the cabinet and on the playfield. They did a really good job of capturing the feel of the show. Randy Martinez is the one who did it.

The upper playfield is different between the models. On the pro, it has one flipper and the playfield doesn’t tilt. On the premium and LE, the upper playfield tilts and has two flippers for an added challenge. Having played both of them, I think the premium is a big step up in this area.

Baby Yoda (Grogu) is in the back left corner. It’s proclaimed as a large custom sculpture of Grogu but it’s really just an off the shelf toy type of thing. In fact there are people who have modded the Groku to close his eyes and move his arms when the magnet is activated.

There a 5 different modes from the first two season of the show, each dealing with a big event in the story line. Most require about 6 or 7 shots it seems, usually in different orders. None of the modes are particularly difficult, and most are best accomplished by stacking a multiball on top of it. All of the modes feature video clips and get you closer to the wizard mode. Dwight Sullivan did the code on the game and did a great job.

Beskar Armor is something you collect around the playfield during various submodes where you act as a Bounty Hunter. You can use it to buy things like extra ball saver, and extra ball, shot doubling, etc.

I bought a shaker motor for the game, it adds a lot to the game. Highly recommended if you buy the game. They also make art blades and custom side armor.

Normally I don’t care much for upper playfields, but the upper mini-playfield of The Mandalorian is actually really fun with the full-size flippers. It actually measures how accurate you are and rewards you based upon that. It takes repeatable precision to score well up there. I’m not particularly good at yet unfortunately.

There are three main multiballs that are all rather fun to play. You start them by hitting the center shot with the Razor Crest ship a certain number of times. All three of them are pretty fun, and luckily they are random so you don’t play the same one every game. Each of them features a different story of The Mandalorian.

In addition to the modes and multiballs, there are three different levels for the upper playfield to play through to get to the mini wizard mode there. I don’t usually focus on the mini-playfield so I’ve never made it there unfortunately.

If you like multipliers, the Boba Fett drop targets on the right can 1x, 2x, up to 5x your scoring. That can lead to some huge scores between the modes and multiballs.

Sound and Display

Actor Carl Weathers (Greef Karga) from the show provides exclusive custom speech for the game. I most recognize him from the Rocky movies and Happy Gilmore as Chubbs. In any case, he does a good job for the most part, sometimes his tone is a little off, but good overall. There are a lot of quotes and authentic video scenes from the show that add a lot to the game, mainly associated with the multiballs and 5 modes. The display and sound integration for the theme are pretty top notch in my opinion, especially after owning Avengers Infinity Quest and it being lacking in those areas. I’m glad that Gary Stern, CEO of Stern Pinball made the decision to go to a much better display and sound system about 5 years ago. By 2015 their old system was feeling very dated, their new system now makes all older games seem very outdated.

I added an extra subwoofer to my premium game but with the shaker I’m not sure it’s necessary, the included speakers are pretty good. Limited-edition machines come with the same speakers so they’d be ok too, not sure if the pro has the same speakers or not but they’re probably good enough. On older Stern’s replacing the cabinet speaker was a must, doesn’t seem like that’s necessary anymore.

Overall Rating

I’ve played a lot of the newer Stern games, and this is the third one I have bought. I bought it after playing Godzilla, Jurassic Park, Black Knight, etc, I just thought that the theme integration and fun factor was just better on this game than the others. The reasons why I would pick it over similar Sterns:

It has great theme integration. So many of the best Stern pinball machines are lacking in the sound and visual departments due to lack of assets.

It shoots really well, and I love the Star Wars galaxy.

It’s not designed like anything, so many games today are standard fan layouts.

It’s just a fun game that’s challenging but not over the top hard or long to play like many new machines.

If you’re having issues deciding between the models, here’s a video that shows the differences:

Best Stern Pinball Machines 2010 to 2022

2010 is the place where you can draw the line and say this is where Stern started to turn it around, after almost going out of business in 2009. This basically involved them picking better themes, moving to the limited/premium/pro models, and the adoption of more modern technology.

Avengers Infinity Quest

Avengers Infinity Quest was my latest new in the box purchase. While I wish it was based on the movies, the comic book representation wasn’t too bad and allowed some creative freedom on some things. The game centers around trying to collect the 6 gems to defeat Thanos. It’s a pretty difficult game overall, but the chief difficulty in my opinion is that the modes don’t have enough voice instruction to tell you what your objective is. The playfield is very nice to shoot, another Keith Elwin fun game.

Jurassic Park

Another Keith Elwin, the 4th on this list. Basically, every game he does has been awesome so far. Jurassic Park was his second game after Iron Maiden. The game has a lot of interesting shots, probably more than his other three games in my opinion. I really like shooting the game, the rules aren’t entirely clear for a new player though. Everyone that ones one though raves about how much they like it.

Deadpool

This is based upon Comic Book Deadpool and not the movie Deadpool unfortunately. So because of that you get some advantages and disadvantages. I’d say the main disadvantage is that the callouts aren’t being done by Ryan Reynolds, so the audio just isn’t the same.

The game itself is really fun, with a katana that you can lock balls on, and some interesting modes battles. I don’t like it as much as some games on this list, but there are some people that swear by it. I’d like to own one someday to see what it’s like in home use.

Star Wars

This based upon the original trilogy movies luckily and doesn’t include any of the latest movies nor the prequels. I think they did a good job with the movie scenes and modes, but the colored arrows are really confusing at times…I have a hard time figuring out where to actually shoot when shots are all flashing different colors.

The Star Wars pro and the premium are both kind of barren compared to other games of this era, I think a lot of the money went into the license. Plays very fast with a lot of combos. Steve Ritchie, the guy behind Star Trek, AC/DC, and loads of other games was the designer on this one.

Iron Maiden

Before I bought the game, I never cared for Iron Maiden music. In fact, I wasn’t even initially interested in the game at all. But after playing it, I had to have it. Keith Elwin designed the game, the best pinball player in the world turned designer, and it shows. Every game he’s made has basically been amazing so far. The playfield is very fast and features lots of combos, and has great callouts. The modes are well designed and interesting, and honestly I kind of like their music now.

Iron Man

This is the game that really started the turnaround in my opinion. Initially upon release it was panned for being barren and not very deep rules wise, but gradually people came around to the fact that it was just a different type of game than had been produced for the past 10 years. Instead of being long playing with a deep ruleset, it was very hard with short ball times and a shallow ruleset. Once people understood this, it went from an undesired game to one of their hottest titles. I love the game, I actually bought one new and owned it for a long time.

Tron

Tron was game that started the Limited Edition (LE) craze. Instead of just producing one model, Stern started producing LE models with extra stuff on them. In this case, they made ramps with color changing fiber optics that were kind of amazing. This caused Tron LE to become one of the hottest games in the collector market, even to this day. Realistically there isn’t much of a difference between the pro and LE model outside of some cosmetics, they’re both really good games. Tron is like Iron Man, a short and quick type of game. It’s probably the last great game of that style before they switched back to the longer/deeper style of game that they’ve continued till today.

Walking Dead

Walking Dead is another one of those games that started out slowly due to disappointment with the theme integration and the code. There isn’t much integration from the show in the game, and that disappointed a lot of people, and initially the rules weren’t complete on release. Eventually though the rules got completed and the game became a masterpiece. It’s more a generic zombie game than a Walking Dead game in my opinion. Very fun though, kind of gross to look at, lol.

Godzilla

One of the most hyped games in recent memory due to it being another Keith Elwin game and the fandom around Godzilla. The games shots and rules are excellent, and if you like old school Godzilla movies this will be right up your alley. I’m not a huge fan of the old movies so the theme is one of the weaker ones for me personally, but the game is fun to play, and would be a great game to have at home. The main thing I like is that they brought the 70’s rock song Godzilla into the game for multiball, I felt like that was a pretty cool addition. I wrote a comparison of Godzilla pro vs premium a while back.

X-Men

Initially, this was probably one of the most unfinished games Stern ever released. Unfortunately, the hype was some of the highest at the time. The code was barely functioning when came off the line, leading to people dumping their LE’s right away. Initially when I played it, I thought it was terrible as well. But eventually they got the rules fixed, and then it became amazing. Some of the voices are, well, not great, but the modes and playfield are awesome. I owned an X-Men pro for quite a while, still one of my favorites. It has two different wizard modes, one for completing the heroes (Danger Room), and one for completing the villains (Dark Phoenix). I think initially there was going to be a third overall wizard mode for completing both but they scrapped that.

AC/DC

This is the game that blew the hobby up to new levels. Instead of just pro and LE models, they also made premium models, which were essentially the same as LE’s with different cosmetics. All the LE’s sold out immediately, and the game became a runaway success. I believe at the time it was Stern’s best selling game ever and may still be, but since they don’t release sales it’s hard to know other than from rumor’s.

The goal of the game is to play the 12 song modes and reach the Encore wizard mode. This is very difficult to do because of the games high speed, in fact despite owning the game for 10+ years I’ve never made it there. The scoring on the game is different than most games as well as it has a high risk reward factor. Instead of shooting shots for jackpots, you essentially hit song shots to add onto the song jackpot total, which is collected via the cannon. When you drain your ball though the jackpot goes back to zero, making it a high risk reward thing. The premium is a lot more desired than the pro on this game due to the swinging bell, the drop targets, the color changing inserts, and the lower playfield.

Metallica

Metallica was next music pin after AC/DC, and was a big success. All the models are equally fun, in fact some prefer the pro over the premium/LE due to the fact that the hammer blocks the view on the upper part of the playfield and honestly doesn’t work that well as a lock either. I really like the game overall other than it can become a little wood choppy at times (meaning you have to hit the same shots over and over). I’d definitely buy one if it became available in my area.

Best Stern Pinball Machines 2000 to 2009

This next section details some of their early games, which is a much smaller list unfortunately. While they made some good games during this time, the majority of them suffered from either bad theme, bad rules, or bad playfield. Like Indiana Jones was a great theme, but the playfield and the rules were too repetitive for home use unfortunately. Batman had an amazing toy crane but had very uneven rules and honestly the crane didn’t even make much sense. There were some gems though, here they are below.

Lord of the Rings

Probably my favorite game of this era, it’s either this or Simpsons Pinball Party. I give the slight edge to the Lord of the Rings themed pinball machine just because it’s a more intense game and I love the theme. Keith Johnson programmed it and did a fantastic job. The main goal of the game is to play the 6 modes to get to There And Back Again, and each of the movie multiballs to get to Destroy the Ring. The theme integration is amazing, with Gimli providing some awesome custom speech jackpot callouts.

The Simpsons Pinball Party

A complete masterpiece of a game, still one of my favorites. This game had a great ruleset, a great playfield, and all kinds of custom callouts that made the theme integration fantastic. Keith Johnson also programmed it and did an amazing job. The basic premise is that you have to complete the various modes around the town like the Monorail mode to get to Alien Invasion, a very funny wizard mode. There are actually a ton of different wizard modes in the game, like there’s even a wizard mode for collecting all 27 Cletus children, lol. Highly recommended game if you can get your hands on it.

Spiderman

This is probably the first game Stern produced where it actually felt on par physically with a Williams game. Before this their Whitestar board system kind of left the slings underpowered and the flippers would overheat, leading to gameplay not on par with some of the best Williams games. With the new SAM board system, Spiderman was the first game in my opinion to integrate the theme, rules, and playfield in a magical way. It was actually pretty slow out of the gate, the rules were unfinished and the game got dinged as a result. Lyman Sheets though worked on the programming on his own time and gradually turned the game into a masterpiece. It’s very similar to a game from 10 years earlier from Williams, Attack From Mars.

Pirates of the Caribbean

From a toy standpoint, the pirate ship is probably the best toy Stern produced during this time. And the theme is one of the best of the games of this era. The rules though aren’t that great on this game, they’re pretty repetitive. Basically, the issue is that you have to hit the ship and chest way too many times in relation to everything else to get to the wizard mode. The game is still fun, but not to the level of Simpsons, Spiderman, or Lord of the Rings.

Best Stern Pinball for you?

What’s the best Stern pinball machine for you? First you have to ask yourself, are you into shallower rulesets like Medieval Madness by Brian Eddy or Twilight Zone? Or are you a pinball wizard where you want the deepest ruleset possible like World Poker Tour? Gary Stern has made games for almost everyone, from a universal theme like Monopoly to very niche themes like Rush. While they haven’t made the best selling pinball machine of all time (Addams Family by Pat Lawlor), they have made games that have sold thousands. Before they became Stern Pinball, they were actually Sega pinball, and before that Data East Pinball. In those day, they made great games such as Starship Troopers, Last Action Hero, and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

Jersey Jack Pinball actually forced Stern to up their game when they came out, which is also a major factor in my division of machines above. They popularized the limited edition model, which Stern copied and then came out with the additional premium and pro editions. Video games have actually been a big boost as well I believe, with digital pinball games increasing demand for the real thing.

I recommend first picking out the theme that you like best, and then picking out the model you can afford. Typically the more popular themes are more expensive, so you may not be able to afford the LE models of like Tron. Then use the ruleset as the tiebreaker if there are multiple themes that would work.

Can I use WD-40 on my pinball machine?

The answer? NO. Under no circumstances should you use WD-40, for a couple reasons. One is that WD-40 turns gunky after a couple weeks, so while initially making the problem better, it will then make it even worse. Worse than that though is the fact that WD-40 is flammable, so any sparks might start it on fire, which would be a disaster.

Some people also like to use contact cleaner. That’s also a definite no-no.

Before you go to the sections below, if you’re looking for help cleaning your pinball machine in general, go to my Best Pinball Playfield Cleaner page.

Lubricant for Modern Pinball Machines

For modern games (1978 and newer) with digital scoreboards and electronics, no lubricant should ever be used. If something isn’t working smoothly, it’s almost always because it:

a) needs cleaning

b) needs a new coil sleeve

c) part is worn out

That covers almost all of the issues. Like if your flippers are sluggish and not working like they should, they typically need a rebuild kit to get back to normal. The rebuild kit replaces the coil sleeve, the plunger, the coil stop, and the flipper bushing. All of those things are critical in order to get full power.

How do you clean the metal parts? Typically just with a paper tower to wipe off all the dust and dirt. Usually all the dust will be black in nature and stick to about everything.

Lubricant for older EM machines

Like the digital machines of 1978 and after, typically lubricant isn’t needed for EM machines. However, there are exceptions to this as sometimes there are a lot of metal on metal action going on and sometimes a little lubricant is needed.

The recommended lubricant is Teflon based oil, simple #10 oil, or Williams CoinOp lube.

Something like this below via my affiliate link would probably work:

Dupont Teflon based oil

If you want some more in depth repair and conditioning for EM pinball machines, go to Clay’s guide.

Shooter Rod Lubrication

About the only spot where where you might consider lube on a modern game is the shooter rod. While cleaning is the best method, if you’re unable to do that then a little bit of the same Teflon lube from above should do the job. Typically they’re stuck because someone spilled a pop on it 20 years ago and it eventually turned to muck. Also common for the shooter rod is for the sleeve in there to crack or be missing, causing a lot of friction.

Medieval Madness

Widely considered to be the best pinball machine of all time, Medieval Madness is an all time classic. It features a castle that you can bash, pop up trolls, a catapult, and a lot of classic callouts. Tina Fey is even featured in the game as a voice. Also probably the most expensive game on this list, even with the remake it’s still going to cost you over $8000 to buy one.

Attack From Mars

The precursor to Medieval Madness, Attack From Mars is a game with simple rules and outstanding flow. The objective is to destroy all the saucers so you can reach the wizard mode, Rule the Universe. There’s a lot of comedy in the game which makes it appealing to a wide variety of people. I know a lot of people where this is their favorite game of all time. I didn’t own one for a long time due to the cost, but recently finally got one. Family was ecstatic. One thing I can say is that this game needs the outlanes opened to provide adequate challenge, if they’re closed it will be too easy.

Brian Eddy, who designed Attack From Mars, also designed Medieval Madness and the Shadow, and did the software on Indiana Jones. Very talented individual.

Stargate

Stargate was the first game I ever bought. It has 3 different wizard modes, and is probably the best game Gottlieb made in the 80’s and 90’s. It’s probably the cheapest game of all of these too. A lot of people don’t like the System 3 Gottlieb’s because of the flippers but I don’t mind them at all. They do have inferior sound though compared to the Williams games of same era.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

This was like the 5th game I ever owned, and I still own it 15 years later. It probably has the best callouts of any pinball machine ever made, featuring custom callouts from all of the cast members. It also has a Borg ship that actually fires balls at you, rotating phaser canons, and a ton of combos you can do.

One of the unique things about STTNG is that getting artifacts during modes contributes towards making the wizard mode worth more, a rarity in the 90’s. So the more modes you get artifacts, it will add 25 million per shot to the wizard mode. Also, if you get 4 artifacts, it will give you 1 billion points.

Indiana Jones

This is a game that should be better than it actually is. While it’s a good game, it doesn’t shoot as well as a lot of the other games of the era. The 12 modes are quite good, and the music/sounds are classic Indiana Jones.

The main feature of the game is the path of adventure on the left hand side. It’s actually a lot harder than it looks. Also, this game features a 6 ball multiball which is pretty cool. The head on the right side locks balls and releases them.

The Shadow

The Shadow is a great game that is unfortunately based upon a not so great movie. I remember when the movie came out it was pretty hyped but then quickly tanked off of not so good reviews. The pinball machine is unique in that it has 2 buttons per side, one for the flippers and one for controlling the direction of the ramp.

I find this game has one of the best wizard modes of the 90’s. It’s basically a ‘hit all the switches in the game’ in 45 seconds but with the upper playfield and dual ramps it becomes quite task to achieve. I was able to do it once or twice but it wasn’t easy.

Whitewater

Whitewater is one of those classic games where at first it doesn’t seem like much, but the more and more you play it, the more you like it. The music when you start is rather dull and uninspiring, but as you go along it gets better and better. The bigfoot mech and the tons of ramps make a really fun game to shoot. I had one for a while, wouldn’t mind having one again.

Getting the vacation jackpot is the main objective of this game. To do this, there is a variety of tasks you must do. I can’t even remember what they were anymore unfortunately, but I think it was advance the raft to Willie’s, collect multiball jackpot, etc.

The Addams Family

The best selling game of all time, and probably the most recognizable game on this list. Every arcade had an Addams Family during the 90’s, they made tons of money and were very fun. Thing coming out to grab the ball for multiball was the highlight of the game. Gomez Adams provides great voice work for the game as well. The ultimate objective is to get to the tour the mansion wizard mode, which is pretty awesome.

One of the hidden things on this game is that there are magnets under the playfield which activate during multiball. These can cause the ball to do all kinds of crazy things.

Tommy

Finally, a game not made by Williams again. Tommy is probably the best game Data East ever made. It just was well rounded from start to finish, and very polished. I had one in my collection for a long time, was one of my favorite games due to the challenge. The best feature is the blinders that come out to cover the flippers during certain modes and multiballs. It’s a hit with guests because of that.

The music from the game is from the Broadway play and not The Who, but if you buy a pinsound board I believe you can install a modified soundtrack that allows you to here The Who’s songs. I always thought Tommy was super hard to find even though it wasn’t one of the rarest pinball machines.

Jurassic Park

Without a doubt, the best pinball toy of the 90’s was the ball eating Dinosaur on Jurassic Park. Never gets old really, and little kids love it. It has some minor code issues that hold it back, but definitely a great game. Besides the T-Rex, Jurassic Park also featured a raptor pit kickback that shot the ball back at the flippers at high velocity, also something that hadn’t been done up till that point.

This one of my kid’s favorite games when they were growing up.