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Episode 90 - Pinball Hindsight Awards 1990

Wedgehead Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·42m 27s·analyzed·Jul 7, 2025
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TL;DR

Wedgehead Podcast launches Pinball Hindsight Awards for 1990, crowning Funhouse and Pat Lawlor as top game and designer.

Summary

The Wedgehead Pinball Podcast celebrates its 90th episode by introducing a new recurring series: the Pinball Hindsight Awards, retrospectively evaluating the best pinball games of 1990. Hosts Alan and Alex the Waterboy review nominees across 11 categories including art, mechanics, software, and design, awarding recognition to iconic games like Funhouse, Whirlwind, and Dr. Dude, while examining the remarkable output of Bally Williams, Data East, and Gottlieb in that year.

Key Claims

  • Bally Williams released significantly more games in 1990 than competitors; Data East made three games and Gottlieb made four, while modern Stern makes about three per year

    high confidence · Alan and Alex discussing output levels in 1990 vs. contemporary manufacturing

  • Funhouse's interactive talking head (Rudy) pioneered a design approach that influenced successful Bally Williams games throughout the 1990s

    high confidence · Alan discussing lasting impact of Funhouse's central toy innovation

  • Jon Norris programmed modes into Deadly Weapon (1990) before Larry DeMar is commonly credited with inventing modes for Addams Family (1992)

    high confidence · Alan presenting Deadly Weapon as underrated innovator in mode mechanics

  • Pat Lawlor released both Whirlwind and Funhouse in 1990, both considered among his best games 35 years later

    high confidence · Alan and Alex marveling at Lawlor's dual-release achievement in 1990

  • Phantom of the Opera's female figure was modeled after artist Paul Faris's daughter

    high confidence · Alex noting the uncomfortable revelation during discussion of game's art package

  • Gottlieb System 3 street-level games (non-ramp designs) from this era functioned well compared to later DMD implementations

    medium confidence · Alex and Alan comparing design philosophies across Gottlieb platform generations

  • Steve Ritchie ruled the 1980s as top-selling designer; Pat Lawlor ruled the 1990s

    medium confidence · Alan reflecting on designer dominance across decades

Notable Quotes

  • “basically Data East made three games and Stern kind of makes about that now you know three new games a year and they kind of probably doing similar units to what Data East was doing in this era”

    Alan @ early in episode — Highlights continuity in manufacturing scale across 30+ years; contextualizes 1990 output

  • “it wasn't the way for commercial success, but it was the way to our hearts”

    Alan @ discussing Gottlieb's ramp-free approach — Captures tension between market success and collector/enthusiast appreciation

  • “he's a giant head that you're walking into and if you look at it doesn't necessarily feel that way when i play the game”

    Alex @ debating Funhouse theme integration — Reveals subjective nature of theme integration despite game's legendary status

  • “Can you imagine not only releasing two games when the others released one, but those two games being still considered 35 years later as maybe your best games? It is crazy.”

    Alan @ Designer of the Year category — Emphasizes Pat Lawlor's exceptional 1990 output and lasting relevance

  • “Steve Ritchie ruled the 80s, Pat Lawlor ruled the 90s”

    Alan @ Designer of the Year discussion — Establishes generational shift in top designer dominance

  • “the people leaning on really good licenses were making objectively worse games and that's why they needed the licenses”

    Alan @ discussing licensed vs. original themes — Critical observation about manufacturer reliance on IP licensing as crutch for weak design

  • “Ed Boon. Yep. Ed Boon. You're like, okay, it's a fucking banger.”

    Alex @ summing up Funhouse team effort — Casual acknowledgment of Ed Boon's voice work for Rudy as part of legendary team

  • “these street level games that have the pointy boys but don't have ramp returns like that they just kind of work”

    Alan — Technical appreciation for simplified design that functioned reliably

Entities

Pat LawlorpersonLarry DeMarpersonJohn YowseypersonGreg FrerespersonPaul FarispersonJohn KrutschpersonPat McMahonperson

Signals

  • ?

    historical_signal: Discussion of how Gottlieb abandoned street-level ramp-free System 3 games and pivoted to licensed games in the 1990s, indicating manufacturer strategy shift

    high · Alan: 'Gottlieb was definitely doing this coming out of the 80s they quickly abandoned this in the 90s and start pivoting to licenses'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Bugs Bunny Birthday Ball featured inverted playfield section with backward-facing flipper; Funhouse pioneered central interactive toy concept that influenced 1990s games

    high · Alex and Alan discussing Bugs Bunny's 'incredibly innovative and unique layout featuring an inverted section' and Funhouse's lasting impact on game design

  • ?

    historical_signal: Jon Norris implemented game modes in Deadly Weapon (1990) before Larry DeMar's commonly credited implementation in Addams Family (1992)

    high · Alan: 'most people think that Larry DeMar invented this for the game Adam's Family in 1992 but in fact the programmer for Deadly Weapon Jon Norris did it the year previously'

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Bally Williams released dramatically more games in 1990 than competitors post-merger; Data East made ~3/year, Gottlieb made 4, comparable to modern Stern output

    high · Alan: 'Stern kind of makes about that now you know three new games a year and they kind of probably doing similar units to what Data East was doing in this era'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Gottlieb's 1990 street-level games prioritized ease of maintenance and operator-friendly design over mechanical complexity, contrasting with Bally Williams' feature-rich approach

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.127

0:00
Who will be the pinball machine? Who will be pinball machine? Hey, this is Alex the Waterboy here. I know you're listening to the Wedgehead Pinball Podcast, but what's more important is that you go to coffee.com slash Wedgehead Podcast and donate to help us keep making the show, keep us motivated to make a fantastic new pinball podcast for you each and every week if you appreciate all the hard work that my co-host alan does for this fine program you can donate a couple bucks you'll get a link to the discord as a special thank you where you could chop it up with us about everything that we don't get into in this show yeah that's good i think we should just kill i think we just keep that it's a good one yeah banger one all right well welcome everybody to the 90th episode of the Wedgehead Pinball Podcast. My co-host Alex the Waterboy and I are commemorating by hosting the first ever edition of a new series on the show and that's what we're calling the Pinball Hindsight Awards of 1990. Yeah the hippies right? The hippies. The hindsight in pinball yearly award I don't know how I don't know what whippy stands for but these are the hindsight it's the 90th episode of this show we're going to do 1990 a year in retrospect because you see all award shows are fundamentally flawed whether it be the Grammys where Jethro Tull famously beat Metallica for the first best metal album in 1989 while not being a metal band at all or like when Dances with Wolves beat Goodfellas for best picture Oscar despite having no dancing wolves that's an obvious shortcoming obvious shortcoming goodfellas there's a bunch of goodfellas in that movie yeah it lived it delivered it delivered clearly goodfellas is a more iconic and impactful piece of art you know dances with wolves was yeah just recall now is not yeah you know it now because it becomes apparent when it's not new so for the first time ever we are proud to present for your listening enjoyment the pinpaw hindsight awards where we set the record straight on the actual best games of the year with the wonderful aid of time past with which to decide what were the best games of 1990 yeah we're hoping to make this uh recurring series we'll uh slowly kind of i don't know how we're going to do that we're not going to work in sequential order we're going to kind of just jump around and do random years here and there which i think will be more entertaining there are no rules don't expect 1991 next week is all i'm saying this is an adult show so we could say whatever the hell we want it's just after 10 p.m this is the adult tour which means you can drink if you want and we can say whatever the hell we want but you know we should probably remind the listeners of all of the wonderful games that came out in 1990 there's a lot of them fellas this isn't like today's day and age they used to make games back in the day they used to put out numbers. Yeah, you want to, we'll work down this list alternating, right? So first, Bally Game Show from Bally Williams.
@ discussing Gottlieb System 3 design philosophy
Jon Norris
person
Chris Grannerperson
John Hayperson
Ed Boonperson
Dan Fordenperson
Dennis Nordmanperson
Steve Ritchieperson
Bill Futzenrooterperson
Alanperson
Alex the Waterboyperson
Funhousegame
Whirlwindgame
Dr. Dudegame
Deadly Weapongame
Roller Gamesgame
Bally Williamscompany
Data Eastcompany
Gottlieb Premierecompany

high · Alan: 'Gottlieb was trying to do specifically the opposite and simplify their games in an attempt to win over operators with ease of maintenance'

  • $

    market_signal: Manufacturers without top-tier designers (Lawlor, DeMar, Granner) relied on licensing to compensate for weaker game design; hosts argue licensed games of 1990 underperformed vs. originals

    high · Alan: 'if you don't have Pat Lawlor if you don't have Larry DeMar... you gotta make trash like Super Mario Bros.'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Ed Boon (voice actor/sound designer on Funhouse) contributed significantly to game's legendary status; previously associated with arcade/video game industry

    medium · Hosts crediting Ed Boon alongside Chris Granner and John Hay for Funhouse's award-winning audio package

  • ?

    community_signal: Wedgehead Podcast launching new recurring 'Pinball Hindsight Awards' series to reassess historical games with 35-year perspective and correct overlooked innovations

    high · Episode 90 introducing series format to spotlight underrated games and designers whose contributions were historically overshadowed

  • ?

    product_strategy: Pat Lawlor's dual-release of Whirlwind and Funhouse in 1990 demonstrated production capacity and design excellence; both remain canonically among his best work decades later

    high · Alan: 'Can you imagine not only releasing two games when the others released one, but those two games being still considered 35 years later as maybe your best games?'

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Funhouse software by Larry DeMar offered multiple viable play strategies and modes with no apparent scoring exploits or gimmicky oversights; considered well-balanced for the era

    high · Alex: 'There's a couple ways to play it, which is unusual at the time period... It doesn't seem to have any kind of gimmicky oversights'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Roller Games' extensive product placement integration (Sun products, etc.) became defining feature; fully licensed game that matched original theme games in quality

    medium · Hosts marveling at 'sun and stuff' product placement: 'It's so licensed... products are placed all over'

    • 3:59
    Back to the future, Data East. Bugs Bunny Birthday Ball from Bally Williams. Deadly Weapon, Gottlieb Premiere.
    4:36
    Let's be careful out there. diner from bally williams dr dude bally williams so fun house bally williams phantom of the opera data east pool sharks bally williams Radical, Bally Williams Riverboat Gambler, Bally Williams
    5:49
    Roller Games, Bally Williams silver slugger from gotley premiere that's a drive way back the simpsons data east
    6:21
    title fight from gottlieb premiere ready set he's down for the gun vegas gottlieb premiere vegas come on whirlwind from bally williams what a list dude it's kind of insane how many times we just had to say bally williams and i know this is right after the merger and they were just going fucking full speed as like two of the big companies now combined but that is an insane output yeah it's wild that you know basically data east made three games uh and stern kind of makes about that now you know three new games a year and they kind of probably doing similar units to what data east was doing in this era and so it's very interesting but ali williams made a shitload of games and even gotley made four games they made more than data east in this you know well they weren't selling very well but four fucking bangers dude four games zero ramps four games zero ramps baby the era of street level games from gotley right that's right quick glance i'd have to actually write that list but yeah it is definitely very noteworthy because they had already been making ramp games for quite a while and they were trying something different. Yep. And in hindsight, we could say that was not the way. It wasn't the way for commercial success, but it was the way to our hearts. That's true. There's a lot of woo in those games. Those games are very, I mean, at least some of the four games are very fun. Yes. So, okay. Without further ado, we getting into our categories here, getting right into it. What's our first category, Alan? First category is best art package of 1990. And the nominees are Dr. Dude, Phantom of the Opera, Funhouse and Whirlwind. Oh, OK. So we're going to start off with a contentious one because I was trying when I was writing these out to go. This is what I think is the highest rated, the most overall impactful. We're trying really hard, right with these to objectively look back we always have our bias alan and i even more so than your usual pinball fan i think because we really shoot for underdogs a lot of the time but we're trying to put that aside we're trying to think like simpletons and uh and actually determine what the objectively best of these categories are and i'm thinking in art package i'm thinking in lasting impact which is why we included dr dude phantom of the opera funhouse and Whirlwind. These are all games that pinheads in general talk about the art packages in a positive light. I'm going to give the Pinball Hindsight Award for Best Art Package in 1990 to Dr. Dude and his excellent Ray.
    9:31
    Which is the full title, and that's The Art by Greg Freris. Again, it could have gone to any of these games people love paul ferris's art package on phantom of the opera and john yowsey's packages on funhouse and whirlwind are iconic and we're going to talk a lot about those games later on but i just think dr dude is a crazy original character any pinball fan can see dr dude in their head clearly they know the pompadour with the rat tail it's just iconic the cabinet's iconic it's greg freres at his most greg freres i think of the games this year it's the one people want to own because of the art package yes it's it definitely definitely is its own vibe it's unique radical is a really cool theme it wasn't didn't get didn't get a nomination i'm seeing here but i don't know if the art's actually like like if you just look at the art objectively i'm like the art's not that cool i like the overall package of it yeah but the art itself isn't as like it's Like, the whole thing is really something else. But yeah Doctor Dude is the one I agree with that I do think Phantom of the Opera not a good game but I do think it like a cool art package Yep I agree I think it very unique I think it a really good example of that Data East style done well The guy that did that art is a character, I think, right? No, this is Paul Ferris, the guy that did Paragon. Oh, Phantom of the Opera is Paul Ferris? Yep. Oh, shit, that's why it's so nice. That's why it's notable. Yeah, it's interesting. Okay, yeah, sorry. I was, you know, yeah, okay. This is going to roll right into our next category, which is the most unnecessarily horny game. As listeners know, if you're a pinball fan, pinball art has been different stages of unnecessarily horny through its years. And we decided that we got to embrace what pinball was in the past and we got to acknowledge it. We should at least talk about it. Yeah. So the nominees for most unnecessarily horny game of 1990 are Phantom of the Opera, Pool Sharks, and Dr. Dude. I just like seeing the winner of this. Phantom of the Opera is very low cut. Paul Ferris was the Valley Art Department art director during the nipple era, which we've talked about a lot on this show. Yeah. And the young woman was modeled after his daughter. Oh, my God. which is uh incredibly hard to look at now that is hard that's a hard thing to like you're like why would you even disclose that if that's the case it is uh really something she's in lingerie like the opera is this just like based off of the phantom of the opera or is it like a specific movie from this era i believe it's just based off of the broadway play phantom of the opera okay that's what i mean just by the phantom yeah you know just kind of generic phantom of the opera The other game is Dr. Dude, and there is a playfully sexy nurse on the back glass. But I will say when she's rendered on the rest of the game, she's not rendered in the same way. It's usually just a face. It's not full body sexiness. Yeah, she looks like wide eyed and crazy. Yeah. Which is interesting. You know, it's really like quite the Dr. Dude is kind of is very much in like the same style. He's obviously not wearing, you know, he's got a shirt on and stuff. Yeah, the back glass is a little questionable. A little horny when it probably didn't need it. And the final game is Pool Sharks. A game about sharks playing pool, like literal cartoon sharks. Yeah. Right? Literal cartoon sharks playing pool. Now look at the back glass on Pool Sharks and tell me that this was in good taste. I really love I mean, we've brought it up before with like surf and safari and it's like cartoon animals and then just like really overly sexualized like human women. Overly sexualized human women and the sharks are lecherously oogling them. It is an absolutely bizarre choice. I feel like you're like, what compelled them to do this? Which is why it is the award winner for most unnecessarily horny art package of 1990 is Pool Sharks by artist Pat McMahon.
    13:56
    Dubious honor, but congratulations. It made an impact. Definitely. You know, yeah, we're talking about it 35 years later. Yeah. OK, so that kind of gets us into the pinnacle of this subcategory. That is artist of the year. Our nominees are Greg Ferris, known for Dr. Dude. John Yowsey did Whirlwind and Funhouse and Paul Ferris, Phantom of the Opera. I think the winner of this has to be John Yowsey just for the strength of his Whirlwind and Funhouse packages, which are both excellent and iconic. And he also did the art package for Radical.
    14:34
    so wow yeah he's got it we got to give artists of the year john yousey he was on that zombie yeti tip where he was doing multiple games in 1990 and doing it well yeah i don't think it's i mean all three of those guys are very well-known famous artists any of them could win anything i would say but this year was john yousey's year it was john yousey's year 1990 john yousey's year okay next category best mechs and gimmicks the nominees include dr dude whirlwind and funhouse so dr dude what are i mean there's a lot of goofy shit going on in that a lot of goofy shit the iconic mech oh i guess this is mechs and gimmicks mechs and gimmicks full of gimmicks games full of gimmicks and it has the big uh mechanical mix master toy yeah big spinning disc where you can park balls into um which was later kind of reused in another dennis nordman game or stern pirates of the caribbean yeah but it's got lots of goofy little mechs and gimmicks and is a game that is of its time it's got the little chattering mouth of the gift of gab you know like whirlwind of course has the topper which is the fan blowing air on you uh and it has the three spinning discs yes that influences the ball and then funhouse of course has a talking animated head that watches the ball as it moves around the playfield and talks to you falls asleep even and you know you can registers hits it opens his mouth and you can shoot the balls in it is quite the toy i also before before we get into the winner of this category i want to point out these are all three bally williams games yep were the other guys even trying alan well got leap i I don't think Gottlieb was trying for mechs at this point in time. No, that's true. Gottlieb was trying to do specifically the opposite and simplify their games in an attempt to win over operators with ease of maintenance. That's true. Data East, kind of trying. Yeah. I mean, well, Turtles has one spinning desk. It's true. One small spinning desk. It's got the little pop-up sewer. Yeah. But Phantom of the Opera has, like, this. But Turtles wasn't released in 1990, so. Oh, shit. Why did I think of? Oh, The Simpsons. Sam Sam says, God.
    17:03
    Simpsons does not have any. In hindsight, you would have thought it was the best idea ever, but the game did not come together. But the winner for best mechs and gimmicks is Funhaus. And a special shout out to mechanical engineer John Crutch for all of his fantastic work on that game and many other Pat Lawler games throughout the years. Yeah, getting those spinning discs. I mean, that's like a lot of kind of like weight with a lot of gears all driving. And do those things, are those problematic? No, dude, they're awesome. Yeah. They just work. That's kind of an impressive little system there. Yeah. No, John Crutch might be the goat of mechanical engineers, all told. And he definitely wins this year for his work on Funhaus in particular. Good work. Yeah, Rudy, very, very iconic. Iconic character, very iconic mech, though. A mech so nice, they made it thrice. They put two of them into fucking the hack job that is Roadshow. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. That's for 1994 hindsight awards, Alex. We need to get in a time machine and go to the future for that one. okay next next category uh this one's pretty subjective it's definitely one that's leaning heavily on hindsight that is most innovative and we're kind of specifically looking at this with the lens of their lasting impact within that respective innovation so our nominees for this game that you're not going to see nominated for too many categories bugs bunny birthday ball from bally williams with an incredibly innovative and unique layout featuring an inverted section of the play field with a flipper facing the player as far as i know it's the only time on a main play field if you if you don't count that a lower play field i think this is the only time in a main play field you're flipping back at yourself very bizarre very very different definitely innovative deadly weapon i've included this as a godly game not a lot of you have played this game but this game does have modes it has two modes in particular the super cop and the riot mode which changes the state of the play field and changes the objectives true modes most people think that larry damar invented this for the game adam's family in 1992 but in fact the programmer for deadly weapon john norris did it the year previously in lights camera action and this game also has modes before anyone thought there was modes in pinball it's very interesting very very interesting how these got leaves get swept under the rug sometimes yeah well not with not with the power of hindsight that's why we're giving out awards just putting some shine on these games the final one is fun house the interactive toy the rudy the yes that we just it just won best mac so i think you could see this most innovative long-term lasting impact it's got to be fun house because it's very impactful moving into the next decade of pins and even to this day yep we see a lot of very very successful bally williams games in the 90s kind of not not copy rudy specifically other than again the hack job that is roadshow i thought we were pal but a lot of very successful games from the 90s have like a big central state changing innovate or interactive toy and that was something that you didn't see a toy of that scale previously until this like that was yeah and that and that's there's probably arguments to be made for i'm sure there's other innovations that you could argue for funhouse but i would say the double plunger wow yeah plunger laying on both sides i guess it comes back for guns and roses yeah but that one didn't make too big of a laugh and For Roadshow. Oh, my God. Yeah. Jesus, don't remind me of that thing.
    20:59
    But yeah, I would say that the impact of Funhaus definitely, definitely is huge. Yep. Next category, Best Sound Package. Nominees are Chris Granner for his work on Whirlwind Dan Forden for his work on Roller Games and the team of Chris Granner John Hay and Ed Boon for their work on Funhaus Chris Granner did the music on Funhaus, John Hay did most of the sound effects, and Ed Boon did the voice of Rudy. That's, you know, they got the whole squad. Green team right there. They're putting all their eggs, all their audio eggs in the Rudy basket. All these games have fantastic sound packages. Yeah, Roller Games, I feel like, before you breeze into the winner here, I feel like Roller Games, of all of the games released in 1990,
    21:48
    Roller Games is the one that comes up the most to me. Like, the music, the theme song pops in my head. It's like a subject that we talk about often. Like, my wife knows the song. Everybody knows the song. Every bartender, even if they don't play pinball, that's ever had a Roller Games in the bar knows the song. the sound call outs yeah shoot the wall shoot the wall don't flip flip it's like that is i don't know if it's good but it definitely served its purpose and is it like it's a great sound package which is why it gets nominated unfortunately the year is 1990 and you're competing with fun house yeah we're talking about iconic and innovative and we're looking back with hindsight i bet you could have probably figured this one out in the time period but if you can't it's definitely rudy and it's definitely fun house congratulations to the team of chris granter john hay and ed boone best sound package of 1990 goes to you i hope they're listening to this yeah i'm talking to them like they're in the audience exactly okay next category is best theme integration our nominees for this are dr dude and his excellent ray right yeah uh radical with an exclamation point and whirlwind yes you don't think funhouse is nominated for this category you just want to like give the other guys a chance you know i think funhouse is a great theme integration but i don't necessarily feel like you're at a funhouse other than you know what i don't think funhouse integrates shit now that you say that it's just puppet the game is just a puppet you're making me very unhappy everyone thinks he's a ventriloquist dummy which he's not he's a giant head that you're walking into and if you look at it doesn't necessarily feel that way when i play the game which is why i don't think it gets there i have never seen a fun house where you're allowed to bring hot dogs in and hot dogs and hot dogs are the second so the game is is it's a it's a fucking puppet and hot dog themed game if you he's supposed to be the great mechanical man and it's supposed to take place like on a boardwalk or at a carnival he's a man yeah he's not a boy they call him the great mechanical man it's right there on the back glass but yeah i would say dr dude is absolutely the most doing the most with that theme whatever that theme is which is kind of like a weird science thing where he's like a dude that is a doctor it is like you could not make a more doctor dude game yes and then we have radical which is one of alex's favorite games i do love this game it does i think there's an argument feels like it's shooting around and it feels like you're like skating a ball like it really feels like skateboarding in this era i also love the skate or die call outs when you're just like waiting to plunge or whatever it does feel well integrated in that regard and i agree this is also a fantastic game but the winner of best theme integration goes to whirlwind because it has the spinning discs it has the call outs it has the fan blowing in your face bunker you feel like you are a storm chaser and this storm is hitting you yep like it brings you into the moment yep it is a very very well done overall package and it stood the test of time people still today love whirlwind people like that people like that thing man people like that game they like patty lawler i tell you what he's gonna be somebody okay next category best software you want to read our nominees nominees are larry demar for funhouse bill futzenrooter for whirlwind and john norris for deadly weapon i can see where this is going i don't like it but i can see it so i just want to say in defense of uh deadly weapon that layout the layout shoots good but it would not stand with bad rules right you know the software they did like john norris did an awesome job getting like the rules and software together for that thing i think it's a really well done game i think that that game's actually integrated pretty well too yeah for team integration you know it makes me feel like a cop makes cops seem way cooler than they actually are you're like yeah you're like you want to be a cop after you play deadly weapon yeah the hard part of scum the hard part would be shooting all the dogs but yeah i i'm like i do like the software on deadly weapon a lot unfortunately there are some kind of like goofball scoring things there's some goofball scoring things on it and it's just not a very popular game yeah so if we're looking back in hindsight we got an edge to funhouse and whirlwind And this is splitting hairs because I think both are fantastically coded machines. But I'm going to give it to Funhaus and Larry DeMar. Funhaus?
    27:19
    Funhaus, God. Yeah, no, I think that's a good one. I think there's a lot of ways to kind of play that game, or at least the way I play it. There's a couple ways to play it, which is unusual at the time period. There's a good variety in there. I think it's all well done. It doesn't seem to have any kind of gimmicky oversights, anything like that. There's no shortcomings that I'm aware of. Nope. And Larry was just a god amongst men. The first truly great pinball programmer was Larry DeMar, the original GOAT. So we're going to give it to him for his work on Funhaus. Well earned. Next category, Designer of the Year. Nominees are Steve Ritchie for Roller Games, Dennis Nordman for Dr. Dude, and Pat Lawler for the duo of Whirlwind and Funhaus. I like all these designers. Listen, this is the year 1990. But we're looking at 1990. We're looking at 1990. It's only Pat Lawler. This is the year of Pat Lawler. Yeah. Can you imagine not only releasing two games when the others released one, but those two games being still considered 35 years later as maybe your best games? It is crazy. It's crazy. And you can kind of see this rise going into the 90s of Pat Lawler and how he just becomes like a monster seller and just such a highly acclaimed designer. Pat Lawler owned the 90s. He was the best designer of the 1990s. I mean, well, he was the best selling designer of the 1990s. I mean, Steve Ritchie sold a lot of games, too. Steve Ritchie might be the best. Steve Ritchie sold a lot of games in the 80s. Steve Ritchie ruled the 80s. Yeah, he kind of actually did. Steve Ritchie ruled the 80s, Pat Lawler ruled the 90s. Love his 90s games, but Steve was definitely peaking in the 80s, which is kind of crazy. All right. Best original themed game. The nominees are Funhouse, Whirlwind, Radical, and Dr. Dude. So this is just like overall the best game of those four we're listing, right? Yes. Without a licensed theme. Yeah, I kind of like it. Unfortunately, with the power of hindsight, I know what is the most popular and the most enduring of the games. And that's going to be Funhaus. It's Funhaus. These are all great games. They're all original theme games that sold good units. But the one that sold the most was Funhaus. The one with the most lasting impact is Funhaus. Yeah. Congratulations, Pat Lawler. Again, the team, every piece of that team, everyone was firing on that one. Yep. Hall of Famers. You're like, a good idea for an original theme, really well integrated, good software, incredible audio, good layout, good rules. Boom. Yep. Boom. You're like, okay, it's a fucking banger. And that's kind of insane because, yeah, we'll get into our next category here is best licensed game. And just like a spoiler alert, they're not as good as the original. They're not quite as good. The nominees are Back to the Future, Roller Games. Roller Games is good. The Simpsons and Bugs Bunny Birthday Ball. The license, the pickings for license themes this year are pretty slim. This is before Roger Sharper started working his magic. I will say The Simpsons in 1990, great pull for a license. Insane pull for Data East. Bugs Bunny is an iconic Looney Tunes character, one of the best characters of all time. This is a good theme. Back to the Future. These movies were hits. The problem is these games aren't very good. Roller Games is good. But Roller Games. Sorry, those three games. Yeah, yeah. Is the best game with a license. So the winner of best licensed game of 1990 is Roller Games.
    31:15
    Because it's a license and because it's actually a good game, whereas the other games are not. They're great licenses and very disappointing games, I would say. Yep. Games that don't live up to them. Whereas Roller Games is a license that you could tell me was made up and I wouldn't know. I wouldn't be able to question you. But it is really well done. It has a phenomenal theme song, like I mentioned. And it's got awesome product placement. Oh, the best product placement. Dude, products are placed all over. It's so good. It's so licensed. Yeah it like sun and stuff Yeah dude That is the funniest part about it It like oh this thing really licensed It not just a little bit
    31:56
    Speaking of licenses, our next category, which, keep in mind, we're going to try to keep these categories for all the years. So this category might be more contested in the future. But right now, it's basically the Gottlieb category, and that is best knockoff licensed game. Yeah, so this is the best fake licensed game. yeah the wink wink game right and this year we have two got leaves deadly weapon and silver slugger what's silver slugger just a knockoff you just kind of you needed another cat another game we need another nominee it's definitely not mlb licensed it's no but i robots it's it reminds me of the video games that came out in the same era which were you were robot baseball players yep i can't remember the names of those but you're right there was a series of robot baseball i had them on my genesis and i had one on my original nintendo yeah we're both robot baseball pause this for just one second where you fill air while i google quick i'm sure there's going to be so many of these video games too cider cyber stadium series base wars yeah yeah dude and that's 100 the game is like silver robot themed baseball they kept making these video games throughout the 90s yeah so to me you know it's a little stretch but gotley was doing the same thing it counts it counts deadly weapon of course is a lethal weapon ripoff and it's not even trying to hide it from the title to the font yeah gotley was definitely doing this coming out of the 80s they quickly abandoned this in the 90s and start pivoting to licenses because as we've discussed in our license theme episode licenses are a crutch that game companies with weak sales lean on heavily if you if you don't have pat lawler if you don't have larry demar pat lawler chris granner and you're there to make you a fun house or a whirlwind well i guess you gotta make trash like super mario brothers like i mean it's just it's funny because it seems like such like a hot take and you're like no objectively looking back looking back with hindsight with hindsight we can say that the people leaning on really good licenses were making objectively worse games and that's why they needed the licenses so if you're one of those people that is always like oh these good these new games you know they need licenses or whatever think about what that says think about what it says so that being said best knockoff licensed game this year what's it going to we're two of the people that actually have like played these games very recently you just got to trust this deadly weapon because it is so clearly a knockoff both of these games sober slugger and deadly weapon are very fun games and if you see them around you should give them a try yeah deadly weapon seems that both of them have some software issues like a lot of got leaves of this era they have some like unbalanced scoring some weird shit that can happen if you're playing multiplayer but they're both very very fun games absolutely a blast to play these street level system threes are kind of the best System 3s. Yeah. Well, I like all the System 3s until they get to the DMD screen. Like the Alpha Numerics. Yeah, the Alpha Numerics System 3s are actually really good. And then the DMDs, I think there's a lot of fun to be had, but they all kind of have shortcomings. The Winnie Boy Flippers, like we talked about, if you want to go back and listen to our episode on System 3. They were chasing casuals and they made those games real easy to cradle on. Once you start getting ramp returns, that feed into in lanes and you can just cradle on every ramp return yeah it makes the game very very friendly yes so these games these street level games that have the pointy boys but don't have ramp returns like that they just kind of work better they do work better the flippers don't even feel bad to to john borg's credit because he designed them well they had ramps when he designed them to just these were the first some of the first implementations but yeah yeah the flippers on the early ones don't don't feel bad it's weird i think they're good so congratulations deadly weapon best knockoff the team behind deadly weapon we love that game awesome game okay that gets us to well the the last category the penultimate category some would say the most important category some would some would say but there might be one category afterwards that might be even more important yeah but this is game of the year the nominees i included are whirlwind funhouse and diner i bet you didn't hear about diner for the first time it wasn't diner in any other thing diner has good theme integration it even nails that early 90s like casual racism yes it does could have been its own category it would have been most casual racism most yeah god i don't want that category but i will say that is a really well that has good theme integration retrospective i'm going to do a hindsight of our hindsight awards eventually and once we get to that i we should have put diner i think into theme integration so i'm just we're not going to actually go back well here's the thing is like i i stand by the theme integration nominees that i put up there first but i do think that the overall game has good art good overall sound good overall theme integration it's a good original theme it has all those things just not quite as good but the overall package the overall package puts it in the nominees for the best game of the year i agree it doesn't have a standout in a lot of categories and diner's not a game i am particularly drawn to for some reason even though i love mark ritchie games so i i get it i get it's also it's also like people don't wear t-shirts with like the characters or the art on it like they do of dr dude or rudy or the guy in the van you know for that's true but what it is is if you go on the pin side list diners in the top 100 along with whirlwind and funhouse of games released this year so it's clearly deserves to be in the running 100 deserves to be a nominee but it doesn't deserve to be the winner the winner of course have you been listening of course it is it's fun house it's 1990 we're looking back with hindsight fun house game of the year congratulations all-star team best game even one of the best games of all time greg dunlap would tell you it's the best game of all time but it's definitely the best game of 1990 is funhouse the first wpc game or was it funhouse is the first wpc game that's interesting and i wonder if it you know starts impacting this because you start looking at you're like boy this thing this game is loaded with shit it's loaded with like a variety of sounds it's got all it's not they're not really modes but they're kind of like little like mini modifiers i guess would be a good way they're kind of modes and whirlwind has the same thing yeah it's i personally if we're talking about my personal taste i prefer whirlwind over funhouse i do as well but we're talking about overall impact and that of course has to be funhouse yep i would agree so final category of the evening alex insisted on this that was you know what boys think uh is the most important category but we're ending with what the men know is the most important category. It's what's driving the current pinball economy and keeping these companies afloat. And that is, of course, you all know it, best topper of the year. And what are the nominees? The nominees for best topper starting 1990s, Bally Williams, Whirlwind. The other nominee that I can think of now with the power of hindsight is the Simpsons has a topper a simpsons has a bart simpson topper it's actually now i'm thinking about it like that's kind of a good topper i don't like that topper too but you know what between those two you have one perfectly integrated into the game it's key it could not be tied in better it's still talked about it was copied for twister later it is impossible to separate to discuss toppers without talking about this topper so we're gonna have to give the win to whirlwind but i do gotta to say and i'm not even like joking that i kind of like the topper on the simpsons a lot because it's just a flat piece of plastic with bart on it and i kind of think that's what a lot of topper i'm like that's where toppers need to be if they're not going to be whirlwind level of like perfect they should just be bart simpson i agree good runner up there data east you tried but it's whirlwind best topper of 1990s team claims this one again want to thank you all for listening Thank you for making all these great games. I think we settled definitively the best games in all these categories for the year of 1990. And until next time, go out and play some of these wonderful games, these award-winning games from 1990 on location near you. Go find yourself a riverboat gambler. You know what? Go find yourself a Phantom of the Opera. I wouldn't try to find that one. Yeah, well, I mean, you know, at least go play a title fight, dude. You never see a title fight. Those guys box in the back box. That is a cool one. Go find one of these. I'm sure you'll find one. You'll probably find a fun house first, though, because they sold a shit ton of them. They were the best selling game of the year. They won all these awards till the next Pinball Hindsight Awards that we bring you right here on the Wedgehead podcast. Want to thank you all for listening. And until next time, good luck. Don't suck.
    41:54
    The nominees, starting with, from 1990, Bally Williams, it's Funhouse. Okay. I think that's it. I think that's the only time for it. No, no, it's... Oh, shit, it's Whirlwind. Run that back. It's not going to make any sense.
    42:21
    Okay. So the, the, the, the, the.