This is more of a humblebrag than an answer to your question, but the location that hosted us has 119 machines available for use, and we were definitely not going to let players choose from all of them for States. We were able to curate a line-up that was optimized as far as era, style, designer, etc. While I don’t maintain a specific list of “banned” games, I consult the PAPA Game Notes and avoid games with novelty scoring, unbalanced mystery awards, known bugs, boring one-shot strategies that can degrade the machine over time, etc.
One thing that I found to be important is that the TD should be very familiar with all machines used. This is a tough balance to strike when one is also competing; I didn’t want my players to walk into States and see a row of “Zoe Games” optimized for my preference, but I also needed to be able to confidently say whether each machine was functioning as intended, even deep into a game. We had an issue on Pinball Magic in a game I was involved in, where not only was I unable to make the ruling, I was the player asking “Is this machine broken?” and we had to scramble a bit to find someone who could confirm that the machine was working as it should.
I recall a case a while ago where I had to attempt to convince a TD that Whirlpool Challenge is indeed a multiball. (the game was having issues attempting to start it properly)
Just out of curiosity was the left kick-out on Nip-It intentionally weak to avoid endless looping of left kick-out up to the gator? I never had it kick all the way up to the gator. I played it late in the day so maybe it just got tired.
It made the game much less safe and made racking up bonus much harder. It was in some ways more fun to play with the kick-out dumping the ball into the pops every time. Keeps you on your toes.
I’ve owned a Nip-It and used/played a couple different ones in tournaments and don’t think I’ve ever seen one kick to the gator. I think it’s supposed to go to the pops. The more important thing with Nip-it is getting the game to reliably kick the ball all the way out of the lane so that it doesn’t score multiple times for each shot in.
Maryland: (needless to say, we were not starved for choice)
Addams Family
AC/DC Pro
Aerosmith Pro
Argosy
Attack From Mars (remake)
Batman 66
Centaur
Creature from the Black Lagoon
Dialed In
Dr. Dude
Eight Ball Deluxe
Flash
Flash Gordon
Game of Thrones Premium
Genie (with whatever aftermarket board that gives it a skill shot and ball save)
Ghostbusters Pro
Grand Prix
Guardians of the Galaxy Pro
High Speed
Houdini
Little Chief
Lord of the Rings
Medieval Madness (remake)
Metallica Premium
Munsters Pro
Pirates of the Caribbean (Jersey Jack)
Scared Stiff
Star Trek Pro
Supersonic
Taxi
The Hobbit
The Simpsons Pinball Party
Total Nuclear Annihilation
Twilight Zone
World Cup Soccer
Addams Family
Dr. Who
Funhouse
Iron Maiden Pro
Jack*Bot
Medieval Madness
Metallica Pro
Paragon
Scared Stiff
Stranger Things Pro
Tron Pro
World Cup Soccer
Not a fan of setting up Harlem Globetrotters with strobing GLOBE. It adds an unnecessary element of luck as I can shoot the scoop five times and get GLOBE while my opponent shoots it the same number of times and just happens to get an already lit letter over and over again.
It also doesn’t change game time or the strategy of inline drops and then lit spinner in any way to set it up this way.
I’d be fine with the strobing saucer if the drops still spotted letters. I think if it’s set to strobing, the drops don’t award letters. Or maybe they are two separate settings.
I definitely have mine set up to strobe the globe letters, but the drops spot letters so there must be separate dip switches. It has been set that way since I’ve had it but can’t recall specifically off the top of my head if I did that or it just came that way. Regardless I thought it was a good balance of skill and luck as it gives players a route to completion of globe through different shots.
On my Globetrotters, when it’s strobing the drop will spot whatever strobing letter is lit. If it’s a letter you don’t have, you earn it. If it’s a letter you have already then you don’t get anything extra.
I used to have mine set up to strobing, but saw in Pinburgh that they had it static and agree that it’s more consistent player-to-player.
My basic set-up:
Non-Strobing GLOBE
One Spinner lit at a Time
Reset Left Side Targets Each Ball
Game of Thrones
AC/DC
Deadpool
Munsters (never picked)
Jurassic Park
Guardians of the Galaxy
Indiana Jones (WMS)
Monster Bash Remake
Creature
Scared Stiff
Spider-Man (vault)
Attack From Mars
Elvira House of Horrors
Black Knight SoR (Premium)
Iron Maiden
Star Wars
Beatles
Wizard
Eight Ball Deluxe
Rancho
Flip Flop
Black Knight: Sword of Rage Pro
World Cup Soccer '94
Monster Bash Remake
Batman 66 Premium
Congo
Deadpool Pro
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory LE
Beatles Gold
Taxi
Eight Ball Deluxe (tossed in round 1 due to faulty sling I think)
Twilight Zone
Jurassic Park Pro
