indiansbsa

I have been spending a lot of time with Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection by Crave Entertainment. Its a really fantastic sim- best ever pinball for a home console methinks. With the wii mote and nunchuck it feels like I am really there. To that end...how about this for a possible future Pinball Hall of Fame Game?

Lets say we get Crave in a bargaining room with Midway Games and they sign up on a collaboration to release:

Pinball Hall of Fame: The Bally Collection

Think of how amazing this would be on the Wii in one box (yeah Im sure the IP rights would be off the wall) but Id even pay the same money for just 6 of these tables perfectly recreated on the Wii:

Twilight Zone Pinball
Addams Family Pinball
Creature from the Black Lagoon Pinball
Corvette Pinball
NBA Fast Break Pinball
Star Trek Pinball

Its fun to think about anyway

drmoze

Are you referring to the very old trek machine (with the transporter bg)? STTNG was Williams.

A lot of people (incl. me) would like to see Attack from Mars. And I'm sure many would clamor for Twilight Zone (but not me). I'd also like to see Cirqus Voltaire, Scared Stiff, and World Cup Soccer in a Bally collection.

Rainmaker

I would love to see a couple of the more recent Williams pinball games put out such as Medieval Madness and Monster Bash

mhg83

I loved the jurrasic park pinball machine. I hope they put it in a collection one day

darkside

Considering that few stores carried the Williams collection for Wii, PS2 or PSP I'm doubtful there will be another. I think getting a Star Trek machine or any other licensed property is impossible due to licensing fees as these games are budget titles.

That said this is a fantastic pinball collection. I love the Wii controls and the goal system works really well and just keeps you playing to get that last goal on a table. I wish they would rerelease the first Gottlieb one on Wii so I can play it with these controls. I would also love a volume 3, but I just don't know if the interest is there. Gamestop didn't even carry this release, but maybe enough people will find it for Crave to release another one.

My favorites are Fire Power and Black Knight two machines I played to death when I was a kid. If they do a volume 3 I'm hoping for Carnival and at least one baseball machine.

hardcore

Williams is definitely the way to go when it comes to pinball games. For some reason I found Bally to only be a notch above Sega for terrible pinball. It seemed like they went out of their way to have shots where if you barely miss the ball is guaranteed to fall right down the center.

STTNG pinball is by far the greatest pinball game ever created and is one of the only machines I would consider buying for my home. An accurate sim would be fun, but I doubt it could do justice to the excitement of going from warp 9 to 9.9.

drmoze

Wow, do we disagree here! STTNG is one of the "popular" pins of the late 90's that I could never get into at all. I think it missed the mark by being a widebody, with the big empty middle playfield that just let the ball roll aimlessly around far too often. There are too many contemporary games with much better/focused action, like Cirqus Voltaire (I do own one of those), Medieval Madness, Attack from Mars, etc. For a Widebody game, I always liked Road show more than STTNG or Twilight Zone. And then I have a few quirky faves like Demolition Man and Sega's Starship Troopers. I'd be happy to own any of these (if I had the room!). STTNG would not be anywhere on my list, as long as it may be.

hardcore

I never had any problem with the wide open playfield on STTNG. I enjoyed the long shots that gave you to make. I guess that would explain why I also enjoyed No Fear, with nothing but ramps and orbits to shoot. The main issue with STTNG was that it required so much maintenance that it was almost impossible to find one in decent operation, and the game was too frustrating to play with weak flippers/launchers/bumpers.

Don't get me wrong, I was a big fan of Attack from Mars, Medieval Madness and World Cup Soccer but STTNG just felt like it had the most "fun things to do" in any of the games of the time...

At any rate, if nothing else this discussion has shown that there is definitely enough material for a second pinball collection, and may have even inspired me to go pick up the first one, or even start watching for a real machine, even if I don't have room in my condo.

drmoze

I'd even go for some of the older games that were a lot of fun, including some EMs. And pretty much *all* games are no fun to play with weak/broken flippers, bumpers, kickouts, etc. Once you have a home machine and shop it, it needs very little maintenance and will play great all the time. (I have an old EM, Gottlieb Gold Strike--also released as El Dorado, Target Alpha, Solar City) with 15 drop targets. Cleaned and adjusted it completely in the mid-80's. Plays like a dream to this day, with strong pops and flippers, and flawless targets and switches. Faster than many newer machines I see on location these days.

(BTW, semi-related comment: I finally broke down and got a PSP so I could play the Gottlieb and Williams pinball collections on the go (and maybe watch movies on it too). I already have the Gottlieb collection for the GC (played on my Wii) and the Wii Williams collection. But good pinball is good pinball, and even though they're not real machines, it's nice to have more variety.

RichC2

Picked up the current collection for the Wii, enjoyable stuff.

Forgot how elaborate some of these tables were.

spainlinx0

I just ordered this game from Amazon. My girlfriend and I have gotten so addicted to playing the Sopranos pinball game at the laundromat when we are there, and the prices of tables being what they are everyone here has sold me on this game. I am very excited to see how this game turns out, and the price at 30 bucks is not too bad either.

darkside

Starting to see this at a few Targets for $20. $10 less than Best Buy. Worth a try if you are looking to get the game.

mhg83

None of the stores i went to had the game. I finally found the game on saturday. It's a really good collection of old pinball tables. Did the stores think the it wouldn't sell well? Is pinball really that dead of a genre? If i had enough money I would love to own an actual table.

murray731

Some Targets might have this mispriced at $13.98. My local Target (Brighton, CO) had 4 copies a week ago with a shelf tag of $13.98. Rang up $19.99, but the cashier adjusted with no problem.

spainlinx0

Damn I'll check Target today, and cancel my Amazon order at $30 if they have it.

Pitchman

Thanks to the OP for the heads-up on Target. I snagged a copy for $19.99 (no $13.98 misprice at my store.) Then, I canceled my Amazon order (which wasn't going to ship until the 14th!) and saved $10 in the process!

spainlinx0

I just snagged a copy at Target for $19.99 and was also able to pick up Crackdown on clearance for $15.

Michael Corvin

No luck at my Target.

spainlinx0

It was actually the third Target I went to, but I had a free night, and felt like doing some shopping anyway. It's nice having so many Targets in a small radius.

Pitchman

For what it's worth, I didn't see it on the shelf when I bought mine. In fact, after perusing all of the games on the Wii side of the software isle, I was about to leave when a clerk asked me if I found everything I was looking for. I replied "No" and said I was looking for Pinball Hall of Fame. He then went around the corner to another aisle and fetched it off an end-cap near a bunch of totally unrelated toys. He said he remembered stocking it there a couple of days earlier. Talk about a whacky store plan-o-gram! I would have NEVER found it on my own. So, my advice to you is you may want to double-check the store and ask a clerk, or better yet, just call ahead and see if they have it in stock.

lawyer goodwill

Got the Williams Collection for the PS2 from Buy.com. Wow, I'm really having fun with this title. I'm not particularly good at it, but all of the tables have addictive qualities - and my game keeps improving because of that.

While I usually lean towards the more "unreal" pinball video games (PC Balls of Steel, NES Pinball and GB Kirby's Pinball Land remain favs of mine), this has been the best simulated pin I have every played, hands-down. And a load of fun, to boot.

spainlinx0

I'm addicted to this game. It is cool to see the progression of the games as the years go by if you play them in order. Funhouse is ridiculously addictive and fun. Whirlwind is another great time. I like pretty much all the tables for one reason or another although I can see how some can get on your nerves. Jive Time is a game that I would have been so pissed dumping money into because of how easy it is for the balls to go down the sides or down the middle, but I put up with it because it's "free" here. It is extremely challenging. I don't think I have broken 100,000 points on it yet which is one of the table goals. I can't imagine what the Wizard goals would be for that table.

darkside

I personally love the old tables like Jive Time. The way you play them is very different and these are tables meant to be bumped a lot to move the ball into spots you need. I had no trouble with the first set of goals, but still have a couple left for the Wizard goals. I won't argue it is the best table in the game (Black Knight and Firepower are my childhood favorites) but it is a nice representation of machines before the days of multiball and ramps. I dropped a lot of quarters into machines like this in the 70's.

I was actually hating Funhouse for awhile. I have never liked machines this crowed with crap everywhere, but went on a 20 million run and it started to grow on me a bit. I still prefer the simpler tables, but have to admit Funhouse is pretty cool.

spainlinx0

I guess being born in 1981 I was always more used to the crap filled tables so I gravitate toward them. I just never got the hang of bumping the tables because I always feel like I'm going to tilt.

drmoze

Anyone have Williams Challenge scores to post? My best is 165. (3 tries.)