Star Trek: The Next Generation is a classic widebody pinball machine released in 1993 by Williams, designed by legendary pinball architect Steve Ritchie with artwork by Greg Freres. The game is widely regarded as one of the greatest pinball machines ever made, ranking first on IPDB and second on Pinside, and features innovative ramp layouts, strong ruleset design, and memorable voice callouts from the original series cast. Known for both its excellent playability and notorious maintenance challenges, it remains highly sought after by collectors and tournament players.
No aliases
Star Trek: The Next Generation is a wide-body Steve Richie machine notorious among operators for being maintenance-intensive and burdensome to keep running
Star Trek: The Next Generation produced approximately 11,000 units
Star Trek TNG introduced Steve Ritchie's hyperloop/warp ramp layout for the first time
Star Trek TNG is the best coded Super Pin with three genuinely viable strategies (warps, multiball, modes)
Williams 1993 machine; fully engaged Crable into the hobby via digital version; used in States tournament
Pinball machine with prominent trigger plunger handle, caused multiple inner thigh bruises to Zahler
Pinball game designed by Steve Ritchie at Williams. Licensed from Paramount. Constrained by licensing requirements prohibiting violence/weapons. Ritchie considered this format (semi-widebody, between Super Pin and Twilight Zone width) more workable than full widebodies.
Classic Williams pinball game; Don analyzing its influence on later Stern designs like Elton John
1993 Bally/Williams pinball machine; Don's current road game being restored and troubleshot.
Landmark Steve Ritchie design; referenced as example of semi-linear code structure before Deadpool/Venom style
No linked glossary terms
Star Trek is the heaviest regular widebody pinball machine ever made
Pinball machine Ken is playing; seeking to break 10 billion point score
Pinball machine sold locally for $3,300; had cracked insert; example of sniping/reselling ethics discussion
Older pinball title with cannon mechanisms that fail during shipping due to design fragility.
Williams game excluded from poll; hosts puzzled why it wasn't included given its popularity and mechanics
Vintage pinball machine; Bruce regrets not selling soon enough due to market crash
IP source for Michael Dorn casting; connection to D&D pinball voiceover talent
Tournament machine running custom Soren ROM that removes video modes to prevent dominant strategy exploitation
Classic pinball machine referenced for having more intricate subway system than Avengers: Infinity Quest
Williams pinball machine notable for use of eddy current sensors in flipper feed lanes
Williams 1993 pinball machine; Don's current road game requiring extensive ribbon cable and coil troubleshooting
Heavy machine, purchased from Chicago, disliked compared to newer Star Trek, flippers slow/worn
2012 Limited Edition pinball machine used in tournament; features motorized scoop diverter and up kicker habitrail; set up harder than expected at this venue
Pinball machine designed by Dwight Sullivan; his most proud work due to excellent team, personal passion for sci-fi, Paramount visit, and successful theme capture
Data East DMD pinball machine; one of Martin Wiest's favorite games; cited as having great gameplay on wide body
Pinball machine mentioned as potential future acquisition for Grazely Garage collection
Pinball machine recently acquired by Gonzo at good price; third machine of this title he's owned; featured on his top 10 games list; intended for Pin Fest display
Stern pinball machine being played; Pro model; features multiple modes including Nero, Kobayashi, Destroy the Drill, Space Jump, Prime Directive
Classic pinball machine discussed in chat; chat member Midheart received one for birthday
Pinball machine Greg defended in online discussions; referenced as a 'beautiful machine' with powder-coated purple appearance
Game Tom dislikes despite its popularity; he finds it shallow, slow to get to Final Frontier, and not captured by the theme; John Borg shot is cool but insufficient to hold interest
Williams classic, ~$5,000, criticized by Greg as 'boring' and 'one of the biggest shit turds'
Williams pinball game featuring Jason Werdrick's custom flipper code Easter egg
Pinball machine being played and extensively critiqued; criticized for difficult outlane design, punishing layout, and flipper sticking issue
Pinball game; Admiral character appears as Easter egg in World Cup Soccer 94 TV award animations
Pinball machine originally paired with Jackpot in a two-for-one deal five years ago; eventually traded away by Cary Hardy in favor of Jackpot
No. 3 seed in Modern Widebody Tournament; mechanically superior to Twilight Zone in some respects; heaviest regular widebody ever made
Classic pinball machine in Kyle's collection; restored from rough condition
Williams widebody; host's second favorite Super Pin by Williams; features extensive original cast callouts including Q, Picard, Data, Riker, Worf
Pinball machine on location at The Four Quarters during the venue visit
Williams/Bally pinball title; Kickstarter-funded for digital recreation by FarSight due to expensive licensing
Pinball machine in Silverball Museum Delray Beach collection
Williams 1993 pinball machine at Arcadia
Williams pinball machine at Mega Play
Classic Williams pinball machine; discussed for its engineering complexity and difficult serviceability; described as best 'super pin'
Pinball machine title available at Flip Flip, Ding Ding
Pinball machine game receiving ColorDMD display upgrade; fourth title in ColorDMD range
Pinball machine themed after the Star Trek franchise series, one of two machines featured at charity event
1993 Williams pinball machine being ported to Pinball FX; described as a favorite by the author
Williams pinball game preceding Popeye; successful title that maintained momentum from Addams Family
Wide-body Williams pinball machine at Button Mash
Pinball table with cannons; tested for Kinect perspective shifting on Arcooda
One of four tables played in final monthly Tournament of the Month
FarSight Kickstarter table; licensing estimated at ~$60-65K; considered higher cost property
Referenced as precedent for ball staging mechanism in multiball design; compared to Swords of Fury's lock system
Pinball FX port announced as upcoming release
Grupp's first electrical engineering cable work at Williams; experienced early career lesson when premature harness failures resulted from undersized wire gauge
Pinball game with lane extender feature referenced for outlane modification comparison
Classic pinball machine with incandescent lighting; used as contrast point for LED technology discussion
Pinball machine designed by Steve Ritchie; described as 'king of flow' and 'best pinball in years'; features Klingon multiball and blue target updates
Referenced as early game featuring 'Multi-ball' callout terminology; OptoBoards first-generation machine that Ron is currently working on restoring.
Pinball game in Alex's collection; Alex sets it to middle-range pitch (approximately 6.5 degrees by feel) rather than steep
Dwight Sullivan game; features exploitable video mode worth 200-300 million points that breaks tournament scoring balance; otherwise strong game
Collaboration between Steve Ritchie and Greg Freres; required Greg to develop realistic portrait illustration style departing from his typical cartoonish approach; featured tight technical collaboration
1993 Super Pin by Steve Ritchie; 11,728 units; best-ranked on IPDB, second on Pinside (behind Stern Trek); introduced hyperloop/warp ramp layout; hardest of Super Pins; historically cheap ($3–4k Midwest); excellent rules by Dwight Sullivan; opto/video mode exploitation noted
Zen pinball table released on Alp 4K; widebody conversion; experiencing aliasing issues due to scaling/graphical optimization
Williams widebody pinball from 1993 featuring Michael Dorn voice work and character callouts; Don brought this on a road trip and spent 48 hours troubleshooting technical issues
Wide-body Steve Richie pinball machine; known for maintenance difficulties; Electric Bat Arcade deliberately doesn't route it
DMD game at Rob's arcade; features signed translite by all original series actors; previously owned by multiple collectors including Julie ('Jane Way')
Stern pinball machine being discussed; widebody super pin with excellent design; Gonzo's early major purchase that hooked him on pinball
One of two games Chris restored early in his history; no longer owned
Widebody game Don has in custody for Mad Pinball; features Borg mod and color DMD; available with homie discount
Pinball title; chosen by Mutants three times in championship; reported to have cannon and ball search issues
Stern game; Sterling is having it restored; notorious for maintenance issues including gun homing and plunger problems
Data East game that hooked Josh at Georgia Tech; replaced earlier Data East Star Trek; featured original actor call-outs
Pinball game developed by Stern; Greg Freres worked on artwork, involved licensing negotiations with Paramount Studios.