Journalist Tool

Kineticist

  • HDashboard
  • IItems
  • ↓Ingest
  • SSources
  • KBeats
  • BBriefs
  • RIntel
  • QSearch
  • NName Review
  • +Health

v0.1.0

← Back to items

Episode 105 - Pinball Hindsight Awards 1991

Wedgehead Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·48m 11s·analyzed·Nov 17, 2025
Buzzsprout-18167356
Export .md

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.037

TL;DR

1991 Pinball Hindsight Awards: DMD year sees Bride of Pinbot, T2 dominate legacy categories.

Summary

Wedgehead Pinball Podcast's third Pinball Hindsight Awards episode analyzes 1991 releases, a landmark year featuring DMD debuts (Checkpoint, Gilligan's Island), video modes, and licensed games. The hosts award honors across art, design, sound, mechanics, and software to games like Bride of Pinbot, Terminator 2, and Surf and Safari, establishing legacy-focused criteria distinct from contemporary popularity.

Key Claims

  • Checkpoint was the first pinball machine with a DMD (dot matrix display), though a smaller version; Gilligan's Island was the first with a full-size DMD

    high confidence · Hosts discuss the innovation timeline: 'we get the little baby screen at the beginning of the year that Data East used. And then we get Williams a few months later. They get the full-size DMD screen'

  • Checkpoint was also the first game with an automatic ball launcher

    high confidence · Host confirms 'Is it also the first game with an automatic ball launcher? Yep, it is.' Designer Joe Kamenkal credited as very proud of this feature.

  • Terminator 2 was the first fan layout game in pinball

    high confidence · Hosts identify T2 as the innovation: 'this is the first fan layout... the layout is the innovative part of it to me... the turning point for when games start feeling modern'

  • Williams sued Data East over Lethal Weapon 3 for being too similar to Terminator 2's design

    medium confidence · Host states: 'william sued dead east for making lethal weapon three because they thought it was too close to Terminator'

  • Terminator 2 has a quirk where a ball sitting in the shooter lane produces repetitive bleeping that detracts from the sound design

    high confidence · Host notes: 'Dwight left it in the code where if the ball's sitting in the shooter lane, it'll just go bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep. And that brings it down'

  • 1991 saw a shift toward more family-friendly pinball themes compared to the 1980s bar-oriented focus

    medium confidence · Hosts discuss: 'this is a different era... they're kind of shooting younger these are like arcade oriented games instead of bar oriented games... pinball is a little more family friendly than it was in the 80s'

  • Bride of Pinbot's designer is John Trudeau, not Barry Osler (who designed the original Pinbot)

    high confidence · Host corrects: 'Bride is John Trudeau... Barry made the first one. The original Pinbot'

Notable Quotes

  • “the only award show that actually attempts to get all the awards correct, using the mighty telescope of time past to clarify and distinguish what games have actually stood the test of time”

    Host (Alex or unnamed co-host) @ early in episode — Defines the premise and goal of the Hindsight Awards series—retroactive evaluation based on lasting legacy, not contemporary reception

  • “Bride of Pinbot might be one of python's best art packages and because that game is so iconic and so well known... it had to go to that game”

    Host @ art package awards section — Explains why Bride of Pinbot's art wins despite Python Angelo's other strong candidates in 1991

  • “It's hard to imagine games without it now because they all have them... it is a very critically important thing... it's used now interestingly as like a way to save money”

    Host @ innovation discussion — Reflects on how the automatic ball launcher innovation evolved from premium feature to cost-cutting device in modern pinball

  • “even when you look at the rest of the games on the list, it does feel modern in a way that the other games feel just slightly older... T2 feels like kind of the crossover”

    Host @ T2 innovation discussion — Explains why Terminator 2's fan layout was such a turning point—it created a modernness that persists

  • “You get out of it pretty fast, which is all I hope for in a video mode. It's my favorite kind of video mode where it's not too long.”

    Host (regarding T2's video mode) @ software awards — Expresses preference for restraint in video modes—a recurring community criticism of later implementations

  • “You see the bride of pinbot on t-shirts on posters you know people... that character is like the hack brian allen has probably sold more shit with the bride you know his rendition of the bride on it then they actually sold units of this game at this point”

    Host @ original theme award — Demonstrates how Bride of Pinbot transcended the game itself to become cultural iconic art, validating its legacy status

Entities

Python AngelopersonPaul FerrispersonSteve RitchiepersonDwight SullivanpersonChris GrannerpersonKevin O'ConnorpersonJohn Norrisperson

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Wedgehead Podcast deliberately makes controversial award picks to drive Discord community discussion and debate

    high · Host explicitly states regarding Surf and Safari sound award: 'I want you to come in the Discord and argue with us about it. Yeah, I can already see that happening. People are typing right now.'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Hoops, though rare and from Gottlieb, maintains strong tournament popularity despite being obscure to casual players; represents games with well-designed scoring and shooting mechanics

    medium · Hosts discuss Hoops: 'If you're a tournament player and watch tournament streams or go to Papa, you probably are familiar with the game Hoops... it's very popular tournament game to this day despite being a very rare game'

  • ?

    historical_signal: Bride of Pinbot transcended commercial game success to become iconic cultural artifact; artist renditions (Brian Allen) reportedly outsold actual machines

    medium · Host: 'You see the bride of pinbot on t-shirts on posters... that character is like the hack brian allen has probably sold more shit with the bride... then they actually sold units of this game'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Late 1980s/early 1990s design shift moving away from purely artistic/thematic scoring systems toward interconnected ramp combos, multiballs, and modular shot sequences

    medium · Hosts note of T2: 'the left right ramps that you can combo with fast returns to your flippers... it's got all these things... it's the combination of a lot of things that already existed'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: 1991 marked inflection point from bar-oriented adult themes (1980s) toward arcade-friendly, family-oriented pinball game design

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.145

0:00
Who will be the pinball machine? Who will be Pinball Machine? To the Netherlands, yeah. Yeah, it's true. I'm back. And you know what? I'm happy to be here because it's my turn to plug the coffee fundraiser, right? We waited until you got back to plug the coffee fundraiser. People have been waiting. So for anyone that doesn't know, we're always appreciative of people that want to show their appreciation for us by throwing us a few bucks on our coffee account. It's ko-fi.com slash Wedgehead Podcast. If you like the show, you're a fan of what we've been doing for two years here, you can throw us a few bucks. you get an invite to our discord where you can come chop it up with us and all the other fans of the show it's always a good time it was a good time we discuss all things pinball including subjects like news and rumors and new games that we don't get to on the show we chop it up in there and if you're still upset don't send me any more dms about how you're disappointed that we're going to in every other week release schedule donate to the coffee account and come bug us in the discord about how we're not giving you enough episodes anymore that's the place yeah Yeah, if you want us to take your feedback seriously, you have to give us $5 first.
2:02
That's the system. Also, I do want to say, I think there's been some confusion. It's just a one-time donation to get into the Discord, for the record. Oh, yeah, yeah. Set up a monthly donation if you want, but you don't need to keep donating money. I just saw someone be like, I don't want to donate $5, and I'm like, it's once. So for the price of one beer, skip one beer. And then you can come hassle us and get a much greater return on your money than you ever would via normal DMs. Well, but today, our episode that we're excited to bring you is the third installment of our Pinball Hindsight Awards, the only award show that actually attempts to get all the awards correct, using the mighty telescope of time past to clarify and distinguish what games have actually stood the test of time and what games were merely popular in their day and then promptly forgotten about. In our inaugural Hindsight Awards episode, episode number 90, we looked at the year 1990, which was an extremely eventful year for the pinball industry. And for our second installment, episode 94, Alex decided to let our Discord decide the next Hindsight Awards episode year, and they picked the doldrums of 1985. Yeah. So, again, another reason to join the Discord is you can make us do horrible years in pinball. Yeah. And make horrible distinctions. But in today's episode, we're right back in the saddle in a year that brings us lots of licensed games, DMD displays, and pinball innovations like video modes. Something that we love, obviously, on this show. Which we covered in, like, episode, like, four or something. I don't know. Pretty early on. Five? Yeah. Video modes. I believe it's titled Video Modes, an Inherently Bad Idea. Yeah.

Terminator 2 sold over 15,000 units

high confidence · Host states: 'it sold over 15 000 units of this game so it was a commercial critical player success'

“I want you to come in the Discord and argue with us about it”

Host (after awarding Surf and Safari over T2 for sound) @ sound design awards — Reflects the show's engagement strategy: deliberately making controversial picks to drive community discussion

  • “It's just very, it's just very fun. It's like a multi-ball and then there's like the slam dunk combo. And that's sort of like the main bones of the game, but it's a super fun time.”

    Host (about Hoops) @ software section — Explains why Hoops remains tournament-relevant decades later despite being obscure to casual players

    • John Trudeauperson
    Barry Oslerperson
    Joe Kamenkalperson
    Craig Beerwaltzperson
    Dan Fordenperson
    Bride of Pinbotgame
    Terminator 2: Judgment Daygame
    Checkpointgame
    Gilligan's Islandgame
    Surf and Safarigame
    Party Zonegame
    Hoopsgame
    Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtlesgame
    Star Trekgame
    Lyman F. Sheetsperson
    Harry Williamsperson
    John Crutchperson

    medium · Hosts note: 'this is a different era... they're kind of shooting younger these are like arcade oriented games instead of bar oriented games... pinball is a little more family friendly than it was in the 80s'

  • $

    market_signal: Terminator 2 commercial success (15,000+ units) and lasting tournament/casual appeal validates fan layout as both commercially viable and design-forward

    high · Host: 'it sold over 15 000 units of this game so it was a commercial critical player success that stood the test of time... it's still a very fun game'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: John Trudeau transitioned from Gottlieb to Williams around 1991, marking designer career shift at time of Bride of Pinbot

    medium · Host correction: 'Bride is John Trudeau... I just had it in my head he had done both. Yeah, I just realized he had to leave Gottlieb at some point, but I didn't realize that was the turning point.'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Automatic ball launcher (Checkpoint innovation) evolved from premium feature to cost-cutting device by enabling virtual ball locks

    medium · Host notes: 'it's used now interestingly as like a way to save money because they can essentially use the automatic ball launcher to perform like virtual ball locks... it's used now... just used as like a maybe a little bit of a crutch'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Video mode implementation in Terminator 2 was divisive; community preference developed for brief, low-point video modes that don't overstay welcome

    medium · Host: 'You get out of it pretty fast, which is all I hope for in a video mode. It's my favorite kind of video mode where it's not too long. It doesn't overstay its welcome. And it's not worth too many points.'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Terminator 2's fan layout design became the dominant paradigm for pinball machine playfield architecture; immediately copied industry-wide and source of patent litigation

    high · Hosts discuss Williams suing Data East, and: 'everybody was making fan layouts, including Steve, kept going back to it, and then everyone else was trying to cash in on it. The reason why the new game launches and everyone steps over themselves to be the first person that goes, it's a fucking fan layout'

    • 3:44
    But without further ado, let's get to the list of all the eligible names for the Pinball Hindsight Awards of 1991. Starting with Data East's Batman. I'm Batman.
    3:59
    Gottlieb Premier's Cactus Jacks. Premieres Car Hop. Data East Checkpoint. premieres Class of 1812. Bally Williams, Gilligan's Island. bally williams harley davidson so premiere hoops Let's shoot some hooks.
    5:55
    Bally Williams, Hurricane. Data East, Star Trek. ... Premier, Surf and Safari. data east teenage mutant ninja turtles
    6:55
    Nice. Yeah, that's going to get a lot of awards. Pally Williams, Terminator 2, Judgment Day.
    7:05
    Pally Williams, The Machine, Bride of Pinbot. And Pally Williams, Party Zone. Good list of games here. Yeah, quite a few. 16 or so games. That's pretty good. Pretty good. Pretty good year for pinball. Things were looking pretty hot in 1991. And, you know, we're going to see a lot of innovation as we go down this list. As we said in the opening, this is the year the dot matrix screen made its debut in Checkpoint. Yeah. But what's interesting is that we get the little baby screen at the beginning of the year that Data East used. And then we get Williams a few months later. They get the full-size DMD screen that you're used to seeing on a pinball machine. And that first game was Gilligan's Island. Yeah, yeah. Terminator 2 was the first one designed with it in mind, I believe, but Gilligan's Island. Somehow they rushed that masterpiece out first. and uh frequent guests and collaborators zoe vrabels die on this hill game gilligan's island yeah we should have given this an award for the zoe award i'm sure the gilligan's island will come back up in here at some point surely okay do we want to get into our categories though let's do it starting with our favorite for an audio media format here is best art package the nominees are greg ferris's work on party zone python angelo for a bride of pinbot margaret hudson and kevin o'connor on star trek the winner of this award is python angelo for a bride of pinbot all of these are fantastic art packages actually alex if you can pull up star trek this data you star trek is the one you never see anywhere it's kind of like the lost star trek game but i think that this star trek game is kind of just fucking gorgeous like all around it is very cool looking i think the what kind of holds it back is that the hologram the hologram back glass yellowed yeah part of it when you see it but overall it's a very very cool package but it's like the like the playfield art and the cabinet art it's like i think it's interesting because it's like it's very clearly star trek but it's also like neon pink and green and stuff like it's a cool color palette that they put onto the theme yeah i just really wanted to shout this out because i think a lot of people don't see this game and are like huh is it really i'm like when i was going through all these games i was even surprised playfield i was like this is a sick looking game but also party zone amazing art package but bride of pinbot might be one of python's best art packages and because that game is so iconic and so well known yeah it had to go to that game it had to be it had to be bride of pinbot for the year 1991 congratulations the late python angelo sorry we couldn't get this award to you before yeah it's yeah unfortunately it is also notable because it's one of the python angelo theme or like art packages that isn't you know grotesque like many of his his art is oftentimes divisive but this is one of the packages that it's like no this actually looks good yeah it's not just interesting visually it's like a good looking game so yeah i think well earned oh you're gonna like this alex i started naming these awards after the people that we always joke should be associated with these awards so now we're getting now we're getting like heritage awards oh good so the first one is the official paul ferris award for most unnecessarily horny game of the year if in case y'all don't know paul ferris is a the legendary art director of the ballet art department during the horniest era in the late 70s and early 80s and so we wanted to honor him as this is the paul ferris award yeah and the nominees this year are bride of pinbot and surf and safari there's actually not that it's not that horny of a year yeah when i look back on this uh i can't remember what car hop looks like oh i'm thinking of memory lane the stern yeah no car hop is actually very tasteful like i looked at all these games and i was like you know what this is kind of a clean year for once it's because like this is a different era like looking at these themes and stuff it feels like they're kind of shooting younger these are like arcade oriented games instead of bar oriented games that's true and so it definitely does feel like a little bit of a shift there as we get into the 90s pinball is a little more family friendly than it was in the 80s where i don't know they were just focusing on 16 year old boys quarters at the time and now they're kind of like okay the parents might be there with the boys but of course there is one game That is definitely very horny Well it because Python was still working Python did it The award the Paul Ferris Award for most unnecessarily horny game goes to Python Angelo for The Machine Bride of Pinbot Because everything else, you know, pretty tame. Bride, very horny. Yeah. I would say Surf and Safari is notable, too. Yeah. That's why it gets nominated. it's been safari because it's like the classic pinball trope of like cartoons and then like photorealistic women in the water and you're like okay like it's kind of a it always is weird when they mix it has been my gripe like ever since the first time we talked about octoberfest and i was like they make all like the girls are like photorealistic on octoberfest the the modern american pinball game for listeners the the girls on there are all like photorealistic women and then the guys are like grotesque little like goblins you know they make the guys all like funny but then they got like hot girls with them and it's always weird i'm like don't mix media like that it's weird when you do that just to make the women look good and like and then you're like here's this goofy looking german guy and you're like don't do that shit and serving safaris very much that where it's like here's like a funny crocodile on a slide and then it's like a woman in a wet t-shirt and you're like what's going on they're in bikinis they're at a water park yeah Yeah. It's still horny, but I guess it's justified. Necessary. Like, I don't know if it's necessary. Ferris wouldn't even bat an eye at it. No, of course. No, I think the machine is definitely Bridepin Bot. The call outs and like I can see and I can speak. Yeah, it's a little weird. You lost a little weird. It's definitely horny for a robot. It's like it's very weird. That's true.
    13:47
    next category is the gordon morrison award for artist of the year gordon morrison why are you naming this award after him gordon morrison for younger fans of pinball that maybe don't know he was a longtime artist for gottlieb and he did art on a ton of games primarily in the 1970s and he is the absolute goat and i wanted to name this award after him because i think he is the goat of pinball art yeah i think he is he is fantastic he makes all those games look amazing but he also did like six or seven or eight art packages in one year yep incredibly prolific artists some of the absolute most iconic game art packages out of that era the nominees this year for Artist of the Year are Kevin O'Connor for his work on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Star Trek. Paul Ferris for his work on Batman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Checkpoint. And Python Angelo for his work on Hurricane and Bride of Pinbot. And the winner is Paul Ferris. Because he did three art packages, I think all the art packages look good. I think primarily i really like checkpoint and batman and i think that ninja turtles is passable for the time the high point is the art package for sure on turtles but all three of those games all three of those games look really good all three of them play not maybe as good as they look which means paul ferris you know he was fucking like carrying and all of those games i think sold pretty well too which is interesting i think checkpoint though is very notable it's a really really cool it's definitely the best looking car themed pinball machine of all time in my opinion even past your grand prix i think checkpoint i think the back glass on checkpoint is just like the the play field isn't not so much it gets really kind of like cheesy looking the it's also partially just because like the ramp and design of the toys and stuff but the back glass on checkpoint is so sick it's really really good it's a beautiful game i think the batman game also just really good looking game all the batman games look cool though batman's cool man longtime listeners of the show know i love superheroes and batman's just really cool revs your engines you're kind of a spider-man guy but uh spider-man guy interestingly enough paul ferris doesn't make what i would deem to be a very horny art package but he does he has credit on three art packages released in this year so yeah he wins the gordon morrison award for artist of the year not the paul ferris award not the paul ferris award don't worry he's he's winning that award many many times good okay next category is the john crutch award for best mechs and gimmicks john crutch is the mastermind behind almost every insane toy that is a central feature of pat lawler's games right yeah he worked on pat lawler's basically his entire career starting at williams all the way up through nascar i believe was the last game he worked on that's the game that forced him into retirement that fucking garage car mech dude it's gonna force you to retire too with it on the floor at wedge he is definitely the guy that enabled all these crazy mechs and gimmicks and all of pat lawler's like mad scientists like let's very much like a big part of the magic behind pat's games was thanks to john crotch yep and so we want to name this award for best mechs and gimmicks after him the nominees this year for 1991 are terminator 2 for the moving cannon bride of pinbot for the rotating mouth slash face slash playfield gilligan's island for the jungle run turntable oh yeah that thing's cool party zone uh for captain bizarre cosmic cottage robotic comic rocket ship shot through the back yeah like that's a lot of stuff you listed there and that's why it's gonna win party zone is absolutely stacked and loaded with mechs and gimmicks like it's crazy it is loaded with stuff you know what's funny i didn't really like i'm i'm not a big fan of party zone it's probably my i just don't i don't care for that game too much i like how it looks but i like how doctor dude i like doctor dude more than party zones that's what i always think of but party zone is loaded with shit it's loaded with shit and like it's very when you look at the other games that this is the early years of kind of like big innovative mechs yep and so but like party zone stand out from these other games although right at pinbot has a great one obviously like uh you know terminator 2 it has the canon it has some cool stuff you know like but party zone has to win the john crutch award for best mechs and gimmicks i'm not gonna argue on that one so the next one we got is the harry Williams Award for most innovative. Now, this is slightly different. It could just be innovations in the game of pinball, things that were added to pinball in that year. It's named after the great Harry Williams because he is pinball's greatest innovator of all time. Basically, everything important in a pinball machine except for flippers, he created. Pretty much. Harry Nabs beat him to that point. Yeah. Everything else. Pretty much everything else. if you're more interested you should go back to one of our early episodes we did an interview with roger sharp who was friends with harry williams all about the career of harry williams himself but that's why we're naming this award after him and the nominees this year are terminator two the reason why it's innovative is the fan layout i think this is the first fan layout game i also did an episode on fan layouts and of course the affirmation canon mac uh checkpoint it's the first game with the DMD. It's a little DMD, but it's the first one with one. Is it also the first game with an automatic ball launcher? Yep, it is. Crazy. I didn't know that. It's hard to imagine games without it now because they all have them. Yeah. Whether or not they come with a plunger, they will still also have an automatic ball launcher. And Joe Kamenkal, the designer on this game and who worked at Data East during this time, is very proud of it. He thinks this is the most innovative feature of all time be fair it is a very critically important thing it has become it's used now interestingly as like a way to save money because they can essentially use the automatic ball launcher to perform like virtual ball locks yep so it's kind of a funny it's a funny thing how it was like originally like a premium feature and now i really think it is just used as like a maybe a little bit of a crutch it's very interesting that's an interesting one And then the next one is Bride of Pinbot for the face mechs and just super horny robot theme. Hey, they didn't invent super horny robots because Stern Electronics made Viper, which is a game entirely themed around over-sexualized female robots, right? I don't know how to describe the theme of Viper. Anyone that's like, what the hell are you talking about, should look up Stern Electronics Viper. It's not about the car. It's about something else. It's an awesome art package. It's an insane art package. Mediocre game. It's a bad game. It's an underwhelming game. Yeah. We used to have one. Rhodes used to have one. But rare game, awesome art package. But for the Harry Williams Award for Most Innovative this year, the winner is Terminator 2. again i think you can see this with everything that came after it this is what i believe is the first fan layout the canon itself is very cool and steve reused it on two more of his games and it also has the first video mode so it's like it's got all these things the layout is the innovative part of it to me because it's like the first game that starts feeling it's got like the left right ramps that you can combo with fast returns to your flippers and stuff and i know it's not the first game with like it's hard to pinpoint the orbit loop yeah it's hard to pinpoint what makes t2 because it's like a it's a combination of a lot of things that already existed but it's like the turning point for when games start feeling modern well and they like everyone copied this layout like yeah famously like william sued dead east for making lethal weapon three because they thought it was too close to Terminator. But then everybody was making fan layouts, including Steve, kept going back to it, and then everyone else was trying to cash in on it. The reason why the new game launches and everyone steps over themselves to be the first person that goes, it's a fucking fan layout online when a new game gets released starts here. Yeah, it's kind of crazy, man. Yeah, I definitely think it is the most lasting innovation of this. And even when you look at the rest of the games on the list, it does feel modern in a way that the other games feel just slightly older. You're like, I like Bride of Pinpaw, but it feels very much like an 80s game. Yeah, it feels like a System 11 game. It feels like the era right before it. And T2 feels like kind of the crossover. Yeah, crossover. Yep. The next award. We had him on the show, joined us for two episodes. We're giving away the Chris Granner Award for Best Sound Package. I don't think anybody needs any explanation on why this one's named after Chris. If you listen to the show, you should already know. If you don't know, go back and re-listen to those episodes, because those are the best episodes we ever did.
    23:45
    Yeah. They are fantastic, and Chris is the GOAT of pinball sound designers. And the first nominees are Surf and Safari with Craig Beerwaltz.
    23:57
    Terminator 2 with the man himself, Chris Granter, on it. And The Party Zone Dan Forden And the winner we going with the controversial pick here I see Surfing Safari
    24:24
    Let's fucking go, dude. Surfing Safari is a banger soundtrack. And I want to give some people something to fucking talk about. Yeah. You tell me. Okay, so I want to... Tater 2 has cool sounds and stuff. I don't really remember the music that well from it. I wouldn't say the music is that iconic, even though it has good sound effects, great call-outs. It's all mixed well. It's all very well done thematic. It just doesn't stand out to me. I do think Surf and Safari has rad music. Surf and Safari has an amazing main theme song and just has a great overall sound package. Terminator 2, Chris Granter, of course, it's legendary. Although Dwight left it in the code where if the ball's sitting in the shooter lane, it'll just go bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep. Yeah, that brings it down about like. And that brings it down just enough for Surf and Safari to win this award. Yeah. It's not Chris's fault. He didn't program that. But damn, Party Zone also has just great call outs. and Dan Forden is an absolute legend himself. That game sounds fantastic, but we're giving it to Surf and Safari because I want you to come in the Discord and argue with us about it. Yeah, I can already see that happening. People are typing right now.
    25:42
    Okay, next award is Best Theme Integration. Our nominees are Party Zone, Bride of Pinbot, and Checkpoint. And the winner is Bride of Pinbot.
    25:56
    I think the machine's theme is machine comes to life. Robot comes to life. The robot comes to life. It delivers exactly what it's, you know, what it's supposed to. It's cool. It feels like you're actually like accomplishing something because of that state changing upper play field thing, ball lock system. And the Python R package. I mean, he won two of the Art Awards this year. Do like Checkpoint, like the kind of, I think it's like completely faked little speedometer readout. Yeah. You're ripping the ramp combos or whatever. It's based off of something, but I don't think it's like actually, it's not, it's obviously not the speed, but I don't, I think it's just kind of like gives you an arbitrary, arbitrary fucking like speed readout on there. But I do like it. It feels thematic. It also has the turnkey. Yeah. The turnkey. Yeah, that is cool to start the game. That's pretty cool. Yeah. Now, Checkpoint's actually kind of a cool game. I was going to say other ones this year that stood out to me would be... There's a lot of games. It's interesting because there's a lot of games that I like, and I'm like, well, Hoops is really cool. Harley's really cool. Neither of those games really feel like you're playing basketball or like nothing really feels thematic about them. Gilligan's Island, though, I feel like I'm lost on an island, you know? Yeah, but it's all about getting it to this fucking volcano. And if you ever watch the show, the main turntable mech and the jungle run and the Kona volcano, none of it makes any sense. None of that makes sense with the regular show. That's true. The objective of the game, it kind of docks it heavily. But I think the art package and stuff is really well done overall. Yeah, it's a fun game. It is a fun game. Okay, next award. This is the Lyman F. Sheets Award for Best Software. Again, if you don't know who Lyman Sheets was, he was what many people consider to be the greatest pinball programmer of all time. When we're going to give the award, we got to name it after him. Unfortunately, Lyman passed away and he is no longer with us, but want to name this award in his honor. And the nominees this year for Best Software are Gilligan's Island by Mike Boone and Dan Lee. Hoops by unknown premier programmers, maybe John Norris, Rand Paulin, Alan Edwall. we have in the notes those are all programmers working at premiere at the time but i could not find any definitive evidence on who the programmer was for we don't even know they were cranking games out so fast they forgot to write their names on them but it is to be said that during this time with a lot of games that are very one note hoops is a very popular tournament game to this day despite being a very rare game so you have to give credit to the way that game is programmed It's super fun to shoot, but also it scores well and it's interesting and there's combos.
    28:54
    It's just very, it's just very fun. It's like a multi-ball and then there's like the slam dunk combo. And that's sort of like the main bones of the game, but it's a super fun time. Yeah, it's like it's one of the rare Gottliebs that shoots great and doesn't have some fatal scoring flaw. Because a lot of the Gottliebs from this era, we love how they play, but they almost all have something goofy going on with the scoring that kind of makes them not a great tournament game. And this is one of the ones where it's like they were firing on all cylinders. Yeah, and they probably did it in like six weeks or something, like some crazy shit. The last nominee is Terminator 2 by Dwight Sullivan, a young Dwight Sullivan. And the winner this year has to be Terminator 2 by Dwight Sullivan.
    29:44
    uh the other games are great but terminator 2 is a legacy game it's a game that changed everything and a lot of what makes that game great is dwight's influence like yeah don't get me wrong like steve dynamic layout like he always does it's fast it's awesome chris grander did great work on it but the super jackpot and the fanfare that that game gives you yep uh is just dwight firing on all cylinders iconic things that steve carried through to other games like the payback time and the fact it's the first fucking game with a video mode for better or worse yep which is kind of nuts in 1991 you know they delivered what the children wanted they put a video game in the pinball machine and it's actually not a terrible video mode it's not great no it's it's uh yeah You get out of it pretty fast, which is all I hope for in a video mode. It's my favorite kind of video mode where it's not too long. It doesn't overstay its welcome. And it's not worth too many points. Yep. It's not a bad one at all. And it was definitely a big deal when it came out. As you can tell by so many people copying, you know, just everybody kind of scrambling to get video modes in their games. Yeah. Everyone was trying to make games like Terminator 2. And so we got to give the award to Dwight Sullivan. Okay. Next award. Designer of the Year. We don't have Designer of the Year named after somebody. Maybe we should after this one. I think it's arguable. I would say I think this award should be named after Steve Ritchie. I would probably. That's how I say it. I agree with that. Okay. So we'll say it right now. This is the Steve Ritchie Award for Designer of the Year. The nominees are John Norris for his work on Surf and Safari, Cactus Jacks, and Car Hop. That guy just doesn't get asleep. Steve Ritchie for his work on Terminator 2, only one game. And Python Angelo gets game design credits for Hurricane and Bride of Pinbot. It's interesting. Aren't those both Barry Osler games, too? Bride is John Trudeau. Oh. What? Yeah. I was completely mixed up on that. Isn't that crazy? That must have been Trudeau. Trudeau must have just left Gottlieb at that point. Yeah, and because Barry made the first one. The original Pinbot, yeah. Yeah, I just had it in my head he had done both. Yeah, so, I mean, I guess I knew he had to leave Gottlieb at some point, but I didn't realize that was the turning point. Interesting. But the winner for the Steve Ritchie Designer of the Year Award goes to Steve Ritchie.
    32:24
    Johnny Cage wins Fatality. Now, don't get me wrong. These other guys did great work and designed multiple games. python is still i'm always confused by the design design credits like yeah he kind of like draws sketches up and then someone actually comes up with ideas and he's like i want a million point shot you're like okay does that make you a designer i don't know but i don't know yeah we don't know he's credited so that's why he's getting nominated but this has got to go to steve ritchie again for inventing the fan layout and everything basically everything else everything that harry williams didn't get to and he sold over 15 000 units of this game so it was a commercial critical player success that stood the a lot of the time we have games even in these episodes that sell very well are incredibly impactful but haven't held up t2 is one that sold very well was incredibly impactful and has held up still a good game it's still a very fun game it's a shallow game by today's standards and it was even a shallow game by like late 90s standards But for this time frame? Yeah, for 91, man, this shit was crazy. Next award, this one's got a name on it. The Pat Lawler Award for Best Original Themed Game. And the nominees are... Party Zone. Bride of Pinbot. And Hoops. And the winner is Bride of Pinbot.
    34:00
    Again, I think it's just legacy. If you're a tournament player and watch tournament streams or go to Papa, you probably are familiar with the game Hoops. Otherwise, you probably haven't played it. Yeah, if you're a Pops regular, they've got a very nice Hoops at Pops right now over in the east in Boston. And I think Party Zone is a great original theme done very well. But of course, Bride of Pinbot is a game that people... This is another one of those games where people played it when they were young. And they remember it. Yep. And they talk about it. Stuck with them. And it's also, it was a big enough success. They made a third in the Pinbot trilogy, the son of Jack or whatever, the son of Pinbot, Jackbot. Which is arguably, I think, the best one. Is inarguable to me. I'm like, that's the best of the three games. That one's a hell of a game. But yeah, I do think this is the best original theme of the year. As much as I love Hoops and I would love to give an award for something here. You're like, yeah. It's got to be Bride of Pinbot. that's why we're doing these hindsight awards just try to get these awards correct and think about the legacy now and like games that people talk about games that people buy you see the bride of pinbot on t-shirts on posters you know people yeah that's like good dude the that character is like the hack brian allen has probably sold more more shit with the bride you know his rendition of the bride on it then they actually sold units of this game at this point uh but um yeah it is an iconic game very much so the next award named after joe cam and cal the designer and licensing man at data east yeah my personal hero yeah alex loves this man he's never met him but he loves this guy and uh he's famous for bringing license he didn't create licensing and pinball because Valley did that earlier, but he made the change when he was working with Gary at Data East and the changeover to doing only licensed games. He secured those and he was also a designer. So the Joe Kamikawa Award for Best Licensed Game The nominees this year are Terminator 2 Star Trek Gilligan Island We wanted to put a note in here that teenage mutant ninja turtles and batman really good licenses that they managed to secure the games just suck too much yeah they actually win an award for best licensed game there's great licenses here but those games are not good at all yeah nobody thinks they're good so right like like The general perception is that nobody thinks those games are good. Dude, nobody. Nobody's ever defending those. I gotta say, I'm like, I've never met anyone that's like, actually, that East Turtles is like, really? I think that game's really sick. Yeah. You're like, no, nobody. Only people that like that game, like, don't play pinball. Yeah. So, we gotta give the nominees are Terminator 2, Star Trek, and Gilligan's Island. and the winner is terminator 2 and it's not even close can't be close i mean it was a huge movie yeah massive get for the license i don't think when they secured the license i don't think they realized how big that movie was or how big it was gonna be right because it was still in production yeah and you're like terminator 1 was a hit but terminator 2 was like a monster and so being able to do that get the yeah get the call outs from the man himself on location on the movie set in Arnold's trailer. It's just awesome. Great stories that Chris tells about doing that game and getting those call-outs from Arnold. But yeah, I mean, gotta be Best Licensed Game. I also love that we named this award after Joe Kamenkao and then gave it to his closest contemporary, Roger Sharp, for this year, but I'm sure plenty of years we will have Joe Kamenkao will win this award. Maybe.
    37:49
    He got a lot of good licenses, they just weren't attached. There might be some games. It's just hard competition when you're playing against Bally Williams. That's true. okay and in the opposite uh opposite corner of this is the gottlieb award for best knockoff licensed games the nominees this year again i want to say this year in particular is a little loose there's not the clear knockoffs that some other years are but i will say hoops because it's an unlicensed kind of streetball theme yeah it's not nba it's not it's not any white man can't jump It's not going to say it's kind of like that must have. I didn't. This is pre my time and I didn't really like realize like this kind of vibe was like there was movies like he got game or white man can't jump. It's kind of like Fresh Prince of Bel-Air intro. Exactly right. And so it's basically a knockoff license and the class of 1812, which like Nell Vire and the Party Monsters knockoff. It's Gottlieb's take on that. It's kind of. Yeah, it's that's an interesting one. If you've never seen this game, it's like kind of generic, like spooky stuff. Halloween. Insane chicken song in it, right? It's got an amazing chicken song. It's got a beating heart.
    39:23
    It's an interesting game. It's a cool System 3. It's pre-DMD System 3 from Gottlieb, and it's a cool game. It's odd. Collectors love it. It's actually a fairly valuable game for that generation of games. Yeah, for System 3, definitely. And the other one is Car Hop, which, again... Kind of a knockoff of Diner. Kind of a knockoff of a game that sold very well that Williams made a couple years before, Mark Ritchie game, or the year before, I guess, Diner. Gottlieb's still up to their normal shit here. They haven't started securing. Pretty shortly after this, they start getting real licenses for most of their games. But at this point, it's very much cheesy Gottlieb shit still. It's kind of endearing. And the winner, though, the winner of these, the one that is by far the coolest and the best executed is hoops it's a fun game really really good game really cool art package really cool art of like a cloud you know blowing wind dude the cloud is dope it's a really i love all the untied shoes that all they're they're all playing in like that's a nice touch this is a genuinely very very good game a very very cool art package and theme and everything hell of a game if you get a chance to play hoops do it but this brings us to game of the year i kind of wanted to name this after frontier and just be like go on the record as like frontier is the best pinball machine of all time here's the game of all time so so it's like whatever game of the year we're comparing it to frontier frontier game how many frontiers how many out of 10 from scale of one to frontier uh anyway so the frontier game of the year the nominees are bride of pinbot terminator two and this is a little bit of a surprise to me class of 1812 so i included this one because again after bride and terminator 2 i was like i wonder kind of how everyone feels about all these And I was using the Internet Pinball Database, the IPDB. And for the year, this is the third highest rated game. People really, really like 1812. So it had to be nominated. But of course, it's not going to win. No, nothing is going to win on a year that Steve Ritchie releases. Of course, the winner is Terminator 2.
    42:07
    It's the biggest film of the year, the biggest game of the year. It almost doubled Bride sales. Yeah, and Bride was the second best-selling game of that year. It was a massive hit, but Terminator 2 basically doubled it. What did T2 do for units? Was it like 15? Yeah, it's like 15. That's a lot, man. And there's like 8,000 or something Brides. Yeah, which is huge. It's kind of funny, man. It's just Steve Ritchie, this era, crushing. You know, that one wasn't much of a surprise. I think you heard us list the openings. You're like, oh, Terminator 2 is going to win Game of the Year. But really, the topic that we always save for the last award of the show, it's Alex's favorite award. Yeah, it's probably the only one here that actually matters. And it is, of course, the Best Topper Award. Best Topper of the Year. We don't have a name for the Best Topper Award yet because we haven't conclusively decided what the Best Topper of all time is. We have concluded you just refuse to acknowledge that it's... What, the Black Slaughter Age? You refuse to acknowledge that it's teed off. Teed off topper presents the best topper of the year award. And for 1991, our nominees are Batman. Hurricane. And Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The winner, after much... This is a hard decision. This is a hard one for us to make. where we're giving the winner to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the static piece of flat plastic that says, Play Pinball, Dudes.
    43:45
    It's pretty awesome. It's a throwback to the year before when they made Data East Simpsons and they had the flat plastic and they had Bart Simpson saying, Play Pinball, Man. Yep, Pinball, Dudes. They run it back. Yeah, they knew it worked and they sold a lot of turtles despite that game being fucking hot garbage. And so if you go back to the topper episode, this is one of the ones that comes up as an example of how important flat plastic toppers are to selling games. And how much Alex adores them. Oh, yeah, I love them. As I'm looking here, you know, the multitude of toppers in my basement.
    44:23
    But that was the year 1991. one we want to thank you for joining us for another episode of the pinball hindsight awards brought to you by the wedgehead pinball podcast we these are undeniably all correct yep there's not a single one here that we have any doubt about we don't want to hear it i mean we do want to hear it if you donate five dollars to our coffee account and thus get into our discord if you're in our discord you can uh pretend that we got something wrong but we'll just you know correct you yeah we will be corrected harshly in our discord no you can get in there argue with us on what should have won what there were a lot of interesting games put out this year but it's just once again the years that if bally williams is firing on all cylinders it's really hard to compete with them yeah it's like in a year like this where they put out two banger games that have like stood the test of times really hard to compete but that's why i think this episode is always fun to go back we need to talk about harley davidson what do you want to talk about with harley davidson it's the last game that bally williams made without ramps yeah that's true it's interesting That's true. Barry Osler, it's pretty good. Yeah. You know, it rumbles. That's true. It's pretty fun, man. That game's pretty fun. I don't know what award it could win. Well, I remember, too, that... Best Sleeper. It doesn't look like much, but it's pretty fun. I remember when we did our second set of episodes with Mr. Roger Sharp, and he told us they had looked at Silver Slugger. What Gottlieb did the year before was Silver Slugger and some of those street-level games. They're like, let's make one of these. So they were actually looking at Gottlieb and trying to replicate it. They were actually there, like, because he always says that they're like their competition was inside the wall. That's what, like, George would say or whatever. And you're like, apparently not. They wanted some of that silver slugger action. And their answer was Harley Davidson, which is also pretty good, man. It's pretty fun game. What do you think is the worst game of this year? The worst game of this year is probably Turtles, I would say. You know, I'm going to say it's actually Hurricane. I think that game is dog shit. And that's a Williams game.
    46:30
    Yeah, Hurricanes. Dude, those. Yeah, they're not. It's got some kind of cool mech in it. Like the Ferris wheel thing that they used. Yeah, I guess. Man, it's pretty bad. After we had to just sit there and fucking keep giving Comet Awards in 85. And I'm like, I don't want to even think about Hurricane. Absolutely. But there's no more. Yeah, that's actually probably. uh turtles is bad you're kind of you're probably just forgetting it's just yeah turtle turtles bad that's true and i i actually really like uh my sleeper pick is like i really have fun every single time i play a day to east star trek yeah that game's games games pretty fun and nobody talks about it and you never see it so yeah it's an odd one huh yeah but slips at the cracks want you to go out and play some pinball on location like we always say at the of this episode, you'll find one of these games from 1991. Use the pinball map near you and go and play them. Until next time, good luck. Don't suck.
    47:46
    Are they ticklish? Are they jigglish? Can they be tricked? Can they be chucked? Which ones will move? Which ones will talk but more important? Which ones can dance? Oh, who will be in my machine?