To me, an ‘A’ list title has everything going for it
It is attractive, it draws people in
It has to have the right ‘Theme’. Supposedly ‘Wheel of Fortune’ is a fairly good pinball game, but the TV show it is based on is for old people, there would not be that many people under the age of 50 who would want to be seen playing it
Its rules are simple for a beginner to play, hit the flashing light (IMV TZ is not an ‘A’ list, it is a players game)
But a true ‘A’ lister will have a deeper set of rules to keep a good player inserting his money
It has an open playfield so the player can see what is supposed to happen
It has a good sound (TDK background music is a funeral dirge, TZ is all over the place)
It needs to keep the ball flowing, if the ball is caught up in a playfield toy, or disappearing in subways all the time, then the player will feel out of control
It also seems to help if the game has a personality, Rudy, The RingMaster, J Johna Jameson, The Black Knight. It is you against the machine, and it is personal!!
Cactus Canyon high value is only partially because of its rarity, the machine has it all, but is let down by the programmers not finishing the game properly
And finally, boobies, pinball is a mans game, men like women with big boobies, if you look at games from the beginning up until Bally/Williams closed, most of the time there is a girl with big tits on the backglass
Stern is a modern company that is trying to fit in a modern world, even when they take a theme like ‘Playboy’ , they produce one of the ugliest games around
