The Plunge's "Bucket List" Revisited

Back in 2017 I had written a post titled "The Pinball Bucket List". The purpose of that post was to define pinball machines I hadn't played before and create a "bucket list", crossing off games on the list as I was able to play them. Because I have been playing pinball since 1980, the list was very manageable...over the years there were very few solid state games from the big manufacturers that I hadn't played. In retrospect, however, I might have been too restrictive in my criteria, which was 1) no obscure or hard to find manufacturers and 2) no games released before 1988.

As the list was whittled down to almost nothing, I was unsatisfied. Part of the thrill of crossing games off of the bucket list was supposed to be tied to the difficulty in hunting them down. However, after playing at the Northwest Pinball and Arcade Show and Next Level Pinball, I had very few games remaining to pursue. So I decided to expand the criteria to include all games in Pinside's Top 300, and also added new game releases that I hadn't played yet. That lengthened the list and left me plenty of games to seek out and play.

This would become even more important after my lay-off and 'semi-retirement". To have the means to go where I want, when I want, would allow me to strategically plan how to knock the remaining games off of my list. Pretty exciting! But then I thought, why not expand the bucket list even further? There were shows and competitions I wanted to attend, and lots of locations that I wanted to experience. This led to me adding pinball shows and legendary pinball locations to their own categories on the bucket list. The end result is pretty epic, with my goal being to knock out out everything on the list over the next several years, which I will document on this blog.

Here is the new and improved "The Plunge's Bucket List":

Games (56)

Abba (Pinball Bros)

Barry O's BBQ Challenge (American Pinball)

Big Bang Bar (Capcom)

Big House (Gottlieb)

Big Lebowski (Dutch)

Bobby Orr's Power Play (Bally)

Bone Busters Inc. (Gottlieb)

Bounty Hunter (Premier)

Checkpoint (Data East)

Cleopatra (Gottlieb)

Cosmic Gunfight (Williams)

Devil's Dare (Gottlieb)

Dracula (Stern)

Final Resistance (Multimorphic)

Flipper Football (Capcom)

Frank Thomas' Big Hurt (Gottlieb)

Full Throttle (Heighway)

Godfather (Jersey Jack)

Gold Wings (Premier)

Grand Prix (Stern)

Heist (Multimorphic)

Hercules (Atari)

Hot Wheels (American Pinball)

Jaws (Stern)

Kingpin (Capcom)

Labyrinth (Barrels of Fun)

Laser Cue (Williams)

Laser War (Data East)

Lexi Lightspeed (Multimorphic)

Lightning (Stern)

Lights...Camera...Action! (Gottlieb)

Looney Tunes (Spooky)

Mario Andretti (Gottlieb)

Millionaire (Williams)

Monday Night Football (Data East)

Mystery Castle (Alvin G)

Ninja Eclipse (Turner)

Operation: Thunder (Gottlieb)

Pistol Poker (Alvin G)

Playboy (Stern)

Pool Sharks (Midway)

Princess Bride (Multimorphic)

Pulp Fiction (Chicago Gaming)

Queen (Pinball Bros)

Rollergames (Williams)

Scooby Doo (Spooky)

SlugFest (Williams)

Solar Ride (Gottlieb)

Special Force (Bally Midway)

Spring Break (Premier)

Star Gazer (Stern)

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Spooky)

Truck Stop (Bally)

Vector (Bally)

Weird Al's (Multimorphic)

WWF Royal Rumble (Data East)

Pinball Shows/Events (25)

INDISC (Riverside, CA)

Emerald City Cup (Seattle, WA)

IFPA Pinmasters (DePere, WI)

Texas Pinball Festival (Frisco, TX)

Louisville Arcade Expo (Jeffersontown, KY)

PinBrew Fest (Girard, OH)

Midwest Gaming Classic (Milwaukee, WI)

Pintastic New England (Marlborough, MA)

Pinball at the Zoo (Kalamazoo, MI)

Pinfest (Allentown, PA)

Ann Arbor Pinball Showcase (Ann Arbor, MI)

Golden State Pinball Festival (Lodi, CA)

Titan Pinball SW Regional Pin Masters (Arlington, TX)

Southern-Fried Gaming Expo (Atlanta, GA)

Saratoga Pinball & Arcade Show (Saratoga Springs, NY)

California Extreme (Santa Clara, CA)

NW Pinball Championships (Lynnwood, WA)

Clepin (Independence, OH)

Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown (Denver, CO)

White Rose Gameroom Show (York, PA)

Houston Arcade Expo (Houston, TX)

Pin-A-Go-Go (Dixon, CA)

Pinball Expo (Wheeling, IL)

Castle Siege for Extra Life (Edmonds, WA)

Freeplay Florida (Orlando, FL)

Pinball Locations (42)

North Coast Pinball (OR)

Free Gold Watch (CA)

Pacific Pinball Museum (CA)

Acye Gogi (CA)

Captain's Arcade (CA)

Idaho Pinball Museum (ID)

Nickel Mania (UT)

Electric Bat Tempe (AZ)

Starfighters Arcade (AZ)

Hollwood Pinball and Arcade Museum (NE)

Atomic Pinball (IL)

Northstar Pinball Collective (MN)

LITT Pinball Bar (MN)

District 82 (WI)

Wizard's World (IN)

The Pinlodge (IN)

Recbar (KY)

Pinball Museum of Corbin (KY)

Game Galaxy (TN)

Game Terminal (TN)

Cactus Jack's (OK)

Replay Museum (FL)

Silverball Retro Arcade (FL)

The Pinball Palace (FL)

The Pinball Palace (GA)

Radioactive Pinball Arcade (SC)

Myrtle Beach Pinball Museum (SC)

Flippers Arcade (NC)

Roanoke Pinball Museum (VA)

Delaware Pinball Collective (DE)

Past Times Arcade (OH)

Pinball Perfection (PA)

Pinball PA (PA)

Silverball Retro Arcade (NJ)

Pinball Long Island (NY)

Rock Fantasy (NY)

Rochester Pinball Collective (NY)

Pocketeer Billiards and Bar (NY)

ElectroMagnetic Pinball Museum (RI)

Tycoon Arcade (NH)

Pastime Pinball (VT)

Arcadia National Bar (ME)