How we chose
There is no official ranking, but players share a few clear criteria. Flow: shots that feed each other so the ball keeps moving. Rules with depth: something to chase on every ball, and a finale worth reaching. Toys and theme: mechanisms and art that make the table memorable. And longevity: machines people still queue for decades later. Community rankings, the most-cited being the long-running player-voted top 100 on the collector site Pinside, tend to agree on many of the names below.
Classics that defined their era
These are the machines that show where modern pinball came from.
- Fireball (Bally, 1972): an electromechanical favourite with a spinning disc in the middle of the playfield that flings the ball in unpredictable directions. Few EMs are still played as hard today.
- Black Knight (Williams, 1980): an early solid-state hit with a second, raised playfield and the Magna-Save, a button-fired magnet that could pull the ball away from an outlane.
- Funhouse (Williams, 1990): designed by Pat Lawlor, built around Rudy, a talking head with moving eyes and mouth that swallows the ball. It proved a toy could carry a whole table.
The 1990s golden age
The early and mid-1990s produced the tables that dominate most best-of lists. Dot-matrix displays, licensed themes and big toys all came together.
- The Addams Family (Bally, 1992): the best-selling machine of the modern era. Thing, a mechanical hand, grabs the ball from the playfield, and the Thing Flips feature lets the machine take control of a flipper for one shot.
- Twilight Zone (Bally, 1993): famous for its complexity, with a working gumball machine, a clock, a magnetic mini-playfield and the Powerball, a white ceramic ball that magnets cannot hold.
- Attack from Mars (Bally, 1995): a fast, clear layout with a shaking flying saucer in the centre that you batter until it explodes. A favourite for new players and experts alike.
- Theatre of Magic (Bally, 1995): a magic-show theme with a spinning trunk toy and a vanishing ball, often praised for its flowing shots.
- Medieval Madness (Williams, 1997): regularly named the best pinball machine ever made. You batter a castle gate and lower a drawbridge to destroy the castle, while trolls pop up from the playfield. Its humour and speech are part of its legend.
- Monster Bash (Williams, 1998): collect six classic movie monsters to form a rock band, a joyful theme with excellent flow.
Modern favourites
Pinball came back in the 2010s, and new machines now reach the top of player rankings too. Modern tables add LCD screens, online updates and code that keeps improving for years after release.
Some 90s classics have also returned. From 2015 onwards, the small manufacturer Chicago Gaming Company produced licensed remakes of Medieval Madness, Attack from Mars and Monster Bash, with the original layouts, modern LED lighting and new cabinets. It says a lot about those designs that the best answer to 'what should we build?' was sometimes 'the same thing again'.
- Star Wars (Stern, 2017): not the first Star Wars pinball, Data East made a well-loved one in 1992, but the modern version is admired for its fast shots and deep rules.
- Jurassic Park (Stern, 2019): built around a T. rex toy that snaps up the ball, with a layout full of fast, satisfying shots.
- Godzilla (Stern, 2021): one of the most highly rated modern machines, praised for its layout, its toys and rules that reward bold play.
What makes a pinball machine cool
Look closely at the list and a pattern appears. The best machines are easy to understand in a minute and hard to master in a year. Their toys do something in the rules, not just on the playfield. Their shots are satisfying to make and return the ball somewhere safe. And they have a finale that pays off the whole game.
Those are the same rules we try to follow in Bubble Pinball. The table you see is not a copy of any machine above, but every table is built from real parts, flippers, slingshots, pop bumpers, ramps, orbits and drop targets, and each one has a clear goal: close the glowing bubbles, but only with a ball charged in the right colour. Boss tables change the rules in phases, and beating all ten bosses opens THE GRAND FINALE, a two-minute wizard mode with a jackpot ladder.
Play free pinball now
Most of the machines on this list are rare and expensive to own, and finding one on location depends on where you live. If you just want to feel a good flipper shot today, Bubble Pinball has 100 free tables in your browser, on phone, tablet or computer, with no download and no account. Play free pinball now and see how far you get before the first boss.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best pinball machine of all time?
There is no official answer, but Medieval Madness, Twilight Zone, Attack from Mars and The Addams Family are named more often than any others, alongside modern favourites like Godzilla.
What is the best-selling pinball machine?
The Addams Family from 1992 is widely cited as the best-selling machine of the modern era, with about 20,270 units.
Are the classic 90s machines still made?
A few have been remade in small runs by newer companies, and the originals trade among collectors. Most players meet them in arcades, bars and pinball museums.
Is Bubble Pinball a version of any of these machines?
No. Bubble Pinball is an original free browser game, not related to or licensed from any of the machines mentioned.
All machine names and trademarks mentioned belong to their respective owners and are used only to identify them. Bubble Pinball is an original game and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to any manufacturer or licence named here.