The 10 Best Pinball Machines Ever Made From 1980 - 1984

Tim Sexton·video·21m 46s·analyzed·Mar 16, 2026

Analysis

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TL;DR

Tim Sexton ranks 11 best pinball machines from 1980–1984 amid video game crash.

Summary

Tim Sexton presents a ranked list of the 10 best pinball machines from 1980–1984, a period marked by the 1983 video game crash that decimated the industry. He analyzes gameplay mechanics, design innovation, and lasting impact of games like Black Knight, Frontier, Centaur, Alien Poker, Sea Witch, Eightball Deluxe, Time Fantasy, Space Shuttle, Fathom, and Stargazer, with Flash Gordon named as the bonus #0 game that transcended the era's design trends.

Key Claims

In 1980 there were 40 unique game releases; by 1984 that number dropped to 14 due to the video game crash of 1983
high confidence · Tim Sexton, opening statement establishing historical context for the era
Black Knight sold 13,000 units and changed the industry with features like speech, three-ball lock on upper playfield, and multiball
high confidence · Tim Sexton describing Black Knight's market impact and technical innovations
Black Knight's upper playfield design became a widely-copied template, spawning inferior knockoffs like Split Second, Solar Fire, Jungle Lord, BMX, and Italian Zachariah games
high confidence · Tim Sexton discussing Black Knight's influence on 1980s design trends
Keith Elwin re-educated Tim Sexton about Frontier's quality and hidden design depth
medium confidence · Tim Sexton crediting Keith Elwin for changing his perception of Frontier's gameplay
Sea Witch was later remade by Stern Pinball as The Beatles, and Dean Grover added a special mode allowing players to play the original Sea Witch rule set on The Beatles game
high confidence · Tim Sexton discussing the relationship between Sea Witch and The Beatles remake
Space Shuttle sold 7,000 units in 1984 during the video game crash, which was considered miraculous at the time
high confidence · Tim Sexton stating Space Shuttle 'saved pinball' with 7,000 unit sales
Stargazer by Stern Electronics had fewer than 1,000 units produced, making it a rare machine despite its quality
high confidence · Tim Sexton explaining Stargazer's rarity and lamenting its low production run
Flash Gordon's design redeemed the upper playfield concept that had become oversaturated with poor clones
medium confidence · Tim Sexton positioning Flash Gordon as exception to poor upper playfield designs
Keith Elwin and Escher Loff played a famous Flash Gordon tournament final where Escher defeated Keith by 6,000 points on a game reaching 1.5 to 1.49 million points

Notable Quotes

“What happened was a little thing known as the video game crash of 1983.”
Tim Sexton @ ~0:20 — Sets up the historical context for why pinball production collapsed in this era
“When this game rolled into the bar or bowling alley, it blew the minds of hundreds of thousands of pinball players. No one had really ever seen something like this.”
Tim Sexton @ ~1:30 — Establishes Black Knight's cultural impact on the arcade/bar venue experience
“That's the Black Knight template. That's what everyone was copying off of.”
Tim Sexton @ ~3:20 — Illustrates Black Knight's design dominance and imitation across the industry
“That was until I was re-educated by none other than Keith Elwin to learn that this game is actually amazing.”
Tim Sexton @ ~4:30 — Shows Keith Elwin's influence on modern understanding of classic game design
“Space Shuttle sold 7,000 units, which was an absolute miracle at the time.”
Tim Sexton @ ~25:30 — Quantifies Space Shuttle's commercial success during industry collapse
“Flash Gordon is the best game made during this time period in pinball.”
Tim Sexton @ ~35:00 — Tim Sexton's definitive claim positioning Flash Gordon above his top 10 ranking
“Upper playfields were redeemed. At least they were in this one moment.”
Tim Sexton @ ~39:30 — Concludes the Flash Gordon discussion, emphasizing it as the exception to poor upper playfield designs

Entities

Tim Sextonperson Keith Elwinperson Black Knightgame Frontiergame Centaurgame Alien Pokergame

Signals

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historical_signal: Game release volume collapsed from 40 unique titles in 1980 to 14 by 1984 due to video game crash, illustrating the industry's severity
high · Opening statement: '40 unique game releases. By 1984, that number had dropped down to 14.'
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product_concern: Combo arcade/pinball machines were commercial and gameplay failures, combining bad pinball with bad video games at premium pricing
high · 'These things gave you a bad pinball experience combined with a bad video game for twice the price. It's no wonder they didn't catch on.'
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design_innovation: Black Knight established upper playfield design template that became industry standard throughout 1980s, spawning numerous derivative games
high · Discussion of 13,000-unit Black Knight sales and subsequent imitation by Split Second, Solar Fire, Jungle Lord, BMX, and others
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design_philosophy: Frontier demonstrates masterful thematic integration with sound design (animal/weather effects) matching gameplay progression and playfield zones
high · Tim Sexton crediting Keith Elwin for teaching him about Frontier's risk/reward design with theme-matched audio cues
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gameplay_signal: Time Fantasy's 'time shot' mechanic (spelling TIME) became influential template copied by modern designers Lyman Sheets, Keith Elwin, and Tim Sexton
high · 'A rule that was stolen and used over and over again by stern programmers like Lyman Sheets on The Walking Dead... Keith Elwin on Iron Maiden... and by yours truly on Rush'

Transcript

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0:03

In 1980, there were 40 unique game releases. By 1984, that number had dropped down to 14. What happened was a little thing known as the video game crash of 1983. Now, you may have heard of the stories of excavators finding thousands of unsold Atari 2600 console games in a landfill in New Mexico back in 2014. But it wasn't just consoles that were affected as both arcade video games and pinball machines saw massive losses. And as those losses started, desperate executives were trying to copy anything that had worked in the recent past with often disastrous results. There were some bad games on this list, but none were worse than these horrid arcade video combo machines. These things gave you a bad pinball experience combined with a bad video game for twice the price. It's no wonder they didn't catch on. But this video is about the 10 best pinball machines of that era. Starting with Black Knight. This game changed everything. 13,000 units sold. It had speech. It had a three ball lock on an upper playfield. It had everything going on. When this game rolled into the bar or bowling alley, it blew the minds of hundreds of thousands of pinball players. No one had really ever seen something like this. The game had amazing effects, great sound. The Black Knight, voiced by Steve Richie, taunted the player. So, okay, why do I only have this game at number 10? Well, it comes down to the game play, which unfortunately did not age well. The main gimmick of this game is getting the three ball lock on the upper playfield. It activates triple scoring and then the rest of the game is the same, just everything scores more. And skillful players can pretty much just get this multiball to start over and over again. There really is never any reason to play down on the playfield below unless you happen to activate the hard setting, which forces players to shoot the little turnaround loop to light the lock. But in most cases, you'll just be going up top all day over and over again, and that's about it. But hey, it's still a great game. It's so good, in fact, that a lot of the games of the 1980s were pretty much directly copying this gimmick. There are so many games that had an upper play field with two flippers on it that the player plunges into. That's the Black Knight template. That's what everyone was copying off of. And pretty much all of them just aren't nearly as good. Some of those awful knockoffs that control C controlled ve and Upper playfield were split second, Solar Fire, Jungle Lord, BMX, or any of the Italian Zachariah pinball games. By and large, none of these are really worth talking about, but it's obvious the impact Black Knight had on the pinball industry, which frankly it had it in a strangle hold in the early 1980s. Next, we have Frontier by Bali. I used to hate playing this game. That was until I was re-educated by none other than Keith Elwin to learn that this game is actually amazing. For starters, it has an interesting theme and perfect theme integration. Frontier. It's a game about being on the frontier out in the wilderness with just the chirp of crickets to keep you company at night and predators lurking all throughout land. Players going through the top lanes are progressing the den of predators. And as best they could in the early 1980s, the synthesizer chip in these games is generating unique bird, cricket, and wolf calls, and many other sound effects to correspond with all the animals in this game. The rules are also great. Each part of the playfield has its own risk and reward element to it. Shooting the inline target bank is a bit dangerous, but it lights the spinner. Shooting the spinner is great, but you give up on collecting bonus X if you miss the drop targets on the right. And there's another bonus that can be built throughout the game that can be collected by skillful nudging up top on the playfield. The one downside of this game is its big hungry outlanes. These large slingshots really send the ball side to side, and you've just got a wire separating your in lane from your out lane, meaning you're going to have a lot of balls drained. In a way, to new players, it can kind of feel like this game is just playing itself when the ball is bouncing around in the pop bumpers. But there is a lot of skill here when you do get into it. At number eight, we have Centaur by Bally. This is one of the most interesting looking games ever made. It's only a threecolor art package, black, white, and red. And the centaur in question isn't a halfman, half horse, but rather a halfman, half hog. His lower body is a souped-up badass motorcycle. Yet, he still has some human legs that he can use as a kickstand. As zany as this game is, the suit ran marketing over at Bali didn't lean into any of the interesting backstory in the marketing material. So, I don't really know where this idea came from, only that it's awesome. By chooses to promote this game by telling you that yes, it is a pinball machine with pinball scoring features and it does have a multiball. When you start this game, there's an amazing sound and speech package. A very dark oscillating arpeggio pattern plays, and it changes as you make more progress throughout the game.

6:10

There are at least three ways to start multiball in this game, but the main thing you really want to focus on while playing your multiballs is building up your bonus and bonus multiplier. The rules are a bit confusing. Spelling orbs will sometimes start multiball only if you spell them in order. Otherwise, it just banks orbs and you have to release them later. but you need to qualify that before you can release them. You can also start multiball in some settings by going through the inlanes. And speaking of those, there's actually a pretty cool nudge feature in the outlanes, allowing you to bounce the ball back in play. Whenever you start multiball, the best strategy, honestly, is just flailing wildly. As nudging the ball back through the outlanes doesn't actually require nudging, it could just happen automatically. Then you're kind of in this weird centaur zone where you're just trying to crush as many balls in play as possible, build up your bonus, hit all the drop targets, so it can become a little crazy, but the beginning of the game is really cool. At number seven, we have Alien Poker by Williams. Poker themed games were absolutely huge in pinball in the 1960s and '7s. In fact, players spent a lot of time shooting at cards all throughout this era. But this game's different because instead of you playing poker, it's some aliens playing poker. And boy, do they look cool doing it. The rules of this game are actually a lot of fun. There's this obvious riskreward element in completing the targets in the middle of the playfield and using the top lanes to build your multiplier before you do so. The bottom right double flipper arrangement offers a lot of challenge unless people chicken out and put a wire in between the top and bottom right flippers to prevent you from draining. But honestly, you should never do that because you ruin all the fun. Completing your hand isn't the only strategy to go for on this game. Chasing the jokers around the playfield is also great for boosting your bonus multiplier. Moving the lit pop bumpers are actually skillful in this game. When you reach your third level of kings, you light the spinner. And players can actually sometimes get the ball back to the shooter lane, allowing them to launch the ball up the spinner lane. But if that doesn't work, there's actually a pretty good angle from the top right flipper to the spinner that most players don't usually go for. You'll see this game a ton in classics tournaments. Skilled players love picking it because it really rewards the accuracy on hitting the drop targets and the push your luck challenge element of completing the kings and building your bonus multiplier. I think it's a great game overall. I wouldn't really change a thing about it. At number six, we have Sea Witch by Stern. Stern Electronics was a victim of the video game crash of 1983. They ceased to exist and make games until Gary Stern wound up starting Data East. That company became the Stern we know today. But this Stern, Stern Electronics, was a bit of a different beast. They released some really solid games in their short run. And one of those is Sea Witch. This is a beautiful game with a great sound package. It's a very blue, teal, and green undersea theme with the sea witch herself present in the game's back glass. In classic8s overconfident sound engineering fashion, there are digital waves crashing against rocks, creating the soundsscape of the sea witch experience. You'll see these games around a lot, and let me tell you, people love keeping their sea witch looking great with lots of LEDs, nice clean playfields, and nice rebuilt flippers. Really, the highlight of this game is the ahead of its time playfield layout. See witch doesn't have the first loop shot, but it does have a great attempt at it with the big figure eight loop around the top of the playfield that players can hit with the upper right flipper. There is a cool rule to build up your spinner value by shooting the targets around the bumpers and then shoot the right spinner. But the main strategy players want to go for is building their multipliers at the three target banks that are lit with the X. This game is so good in fact that it was remade by Stern Pinball later in the form of the Beatles. And a lot of people don't know this, but when you play the Beatles, you can actually play the original Sea Witch rule set. That's right. Pinball programmer Dean Grover, aka the Reaper, added a special mode to allow players to play the classic Sea Witch rule set on their Beatles game. Beatles is very similar to Sea Witch, but it's tweaked in almost every way to make the game play a lot faster and with a lot faster loop around the playfield. but it still takes its character and elements from that sea witch layout. At number five, we have Bal's Eightball Deluxe. I don't know about you, but anytime I hear that I have the chance to play Eightball Deluxe, I get very excited. And it's not because this game is easy, but because it's so satisfying when you do have a great game on this machine. Eightball Deluxe is easily the best pool themed pinball machine ever made. Pool and Pinball are longtime cousins of the dive bar. There are tons of pool themed games, almost as many as there are poker and card themed games, but to me, this one really stands out. It's a really challenging playfield with these enormous slingshots that love sending your ball out of control and a very unpredictable pop bumper area up top. But to compensate for it, everything you hit in this game is worth a ton of points. Whether it's the drop targets on the right or caching the eightball after a rack of balls or the inlane multiplier or the left orbit rollover switch. And hey, I just named all four shots of the game, but all four of them are worth going for in different situations in the game. Scoring can be cumulative, but there's always a way to come back on eightball deluxe. A lot of that time it means just grinding out left orbits if you're too far behind, making this still a very fun competition game. The only part that doesn't age so well is that the game is super replay focused. When you spell deluxe across the back panel, you actually earn three free games, which is pretty useless to anyone today because you're probably going to be playing eightball Deluxe in a home collection or a pay at the door kind of pinball arcade. But still super great game, great effects. It's a lot of fun. I love eightball Deluxe. I'd love to have one, but man, they cost a lot of money. Tied at number three, we have Time Fantasy. Now, the haters may say that Time Fantasy is overrated, but I disagree because I went through the list and there was nothing but garbage throughout the year of 1982, and this is the only game from 1983 that even made this list. And in order for this game to rise to the top in this horrendous area of horrible pinball and video games in this massive crash, the designers and the artists really had to think outside the box. And boy, they did with Time Fantasy, a game that is themed around being on psychedelics. At least I assume that's the plot of the game because there's mushrooms all over the bottom half and this amazingly drawn snail right in the middle of the back glass. Williams was not playing it safe with this game. This was an off-the-wall theme with an off-the-wall rule set to match. Players could start snail time by spelling time at the left stand-up target. In order to do this, players must time their shot to hit the correct letter in the word time. A rule that was stolen and used over and over again by stern programmers like Lyman Sheets on The Walking Dead with the bloodbath targets, like Keith Elwin on Iron Maiden with the second level of mummy multiball, and by yours truly on Rush with the three bank of instrument targets on the left side of the playfield. Now, the only real issue with this game is that it's not actually that fun to play over and over again. The main strategy in snail time just becomes draining as fast as possible to plunge back up top and score more lanes. Completing all five lanes at the top can light double scoring and that's where all the money is in snail time. Also tied at number three, we have Space Shuttle by Williams. Now, it's well known around the pinball industry that this game saved pinball. In 1984, in the midst of this giant crash, Space Shuttle sold 7,000 units, which was an absolute miracle at the time. What carried it to this lofty number was some amazing effects. A great sequence of lights in the middle of the playfield. Great sound, great light shows in the back glass, a ringing bell in the playfield, and a great multiball sequence. Game obviously has a big space shuttle on the back glass and a big space shuttle toy right in the middle on the center ramp. It also has a nice smooth shot up the right side where players can rip the spinner for lots of points and get the ball back to the top bumpers. Now, when players play this game, I often see them struggle with what to do when the ball comes down the in lane on the right flipper. And I've got a tip for you guys. If you're playing Space Shuttle, you already have a ball locked on the left and the ball is coming fast down the right flipper lane. Just shoot at the locked ball. You'll just hit the ball that's already locked and you'll get a nice live catch on the left flipper. Otherwise, I've seen so many players try this early shot at the ramp that never works. sends the balls into the pop bumpers. Guys, just don't do it. Just shoot at the free lane that gives you the trap on the left side. I don't care that it's not worth anything. It gets the ball under control. And with that PSA out of the way, let's move on to number two. Heading back into the early8s, we have Fathom by Bal. This, like Sea Witch, was another beautiful under sea theme game, but this one plays much better and is much more interesting than Sea Witch, which brings it up to the top of the list. There are two inline three banks guarding locks, and the player's objective is to lock the ball and get it out of the lock for double or even triple scoring. If the player gets three balls in play, then while they're there, they can either shoot a lit spinner, which is a really cool shot back to the top lanes or some drop targets on the left. The way these inline targets are oriented, especially on the right, mean that the ball loses its momentum and sets up a nice shot to the upper right flipper, which can be flipped up top into this really interesting turnaround shot to hit the drop target bank or lock the ball up top. In fact, this upper flipper is pretty much the only way to get the ball back up there, save for a lucky bounce. It's got reversed in lanes and outlanes, which make nudging at the bottom really fun, and two different bonuses because two is better than one. Gotly, you should have been taking notes. And our number one game of the 1980s is Stargazer by Stern Electronics. And unfortunately for everyone, this is a super rare pinball machine. Less than a thousand were made. And what's so disappointing about that is that it's really an awesome game. I don't know why people didn't buy it in the 1980s, but it looks and plays amazing. It's a Zodiac themed game where players can shoot the targets around the playfield to collect the different astrological symbols. But the main thing you'll be doing on this game is trying to light and cash in your spinners. And there's three spinning targets on this game. The ones on the left and the right can be lit with the rollovers around the in lanes of the game, while the one at the top is really interesting because players can light it for up to 4,000 points depending on the timing of when the ball hits the top drop target bank, but as long as those three targets are raised, the value will not be set. Scoring on this game is explosive, but there's chaotic action all around the playfield as the interesting in lanes, not in lane, and slingshot configuration means players always have to be on their toes because they never know where the ball's going to go. Other than that though, it's a pretty standard pinball machine and pretty standard fun. And those are the top 10 games of the 1980s. But wait, am I missing something? Is there a game I forgot to mention? Is there a number zero on this list? Yes, there is a number zero, and it's B's Flash Gordon. Now, remember how I said that after Black Knight, pretty much every upper Playfield game was bad? Well, this is the exception to that rule because Flash Gordon is better in pretty much every way because Flash Gordon is the best game made during this time period in pinball. And if you don't believe me, then what I need you to do is watch the best pinball game ever played in a tournament, which was the finals of the Open Keith Elwin and Esher Leoff, where Cher was able to defeat Keith by just 6,000 points on a 1.5 to 1.49 million point game of Flash Gordon. Everything on this playfield is super juicy to hit. Lit drop targets are worth a lot. The bonus multiplier is worth a lot. The scoring multiplier is worth a lot. There's an inline bank that could give you an extra ball. There's a bonus collect shot up top. There's points for getting back up the upper playfield and back into the shooter lane. There's all sorts of crazy angles on this playfield that make it just so interesting, fun, and challenging at the same time. Plus, the effects and sounds are just phenomenal. There's great speech on this game, super quotable, even though it's only saying one word at a time, and true to its name, there's a big giant flashbulb in the middle of the playfield that shines on the player's face when they're doing well. So, in a way, upper playfields were redeemed. At least they were in this one moment. And with those 11 games behind us, this wraps up the top 10 of 1980 through 1984. Now, if you like this list, please subscribe.