After much thought and back-and-forth deliberation, I finally decided to put Williams' Taxi at the top of the list as my favorite pinball machine ever made. Created in 1988 by Mark Ritchie (Diner, Fish Tales, Sorcerer, Indiana Jones), Taxi is a classic 80's pin that is best known for being tight and difficult.  In Taxi, you take on the role of a cab driver whose purpose is to take passengers to the airport.  The passengers include a strange and nutty cast of characters that most people during the 80's would recognize: Mikel Gorbachev, Dracula, Santa Claus, Pin*bot (a famous character from an earlier Williams title), and Marylin Monroe (later renamed "Lola" due to issues with Ms. Monroe's estate.....). These passengers are "picked up" by shooting specific area of the playfield, by completing a bank of three drop targets, or via the Spinout skill shot at 25k.  Once picked up, a timed jackpot is lit and collected upon shooting the right loop and settling the ball in the upper left saucer. If a player does not make the jackpot shot before the timer runs out, the shot can be reset by picking up Marylin/Lola from the center bank of drop targets. However, the difficulty of obtaining the jackpot is further increased, since all pickups are voided at that end of each ball unless you are able to light and collect a difficult "Carry Passengers" bonus.   






Other ways to score well in Taxi include alternating shots on the ramps and starting multiball.  The shots in Taxi are fairly tight and the crossing wireform ramps give the game a great flow. If you can dial in the ramps, you can continue to shoot them from left to right and light the 1 million bonus shot in the upper left saucer (and 1 million pts. is a very nice bonus in Taxi). However, these ramp combos (like the jackpot) are timed and not shooting the opposite ramp quick enough, results in having to begin shooting the combos again. These ramp combos also reset after your ball drains.

Another great way to score in Taxi is to lock a ball in the far right saucer identified as Express Lane #1. Once locked, "Release" lights below the left ramp; you then plunge a second ball and shoot the left ramp to begin multiball. Multiball is fast and furious, with the object being locking a ball first in Express Lane #1 and subsequently locking a second ball in Express Lane #2 on the opposite side.  When you lock your ball in Express Lane #1, a timer begins; if you are unable to lock Express Lane #2 before the timer ends, your first locked ball exits Express Lane #1 and must be relocked. Once both balls are locked, you earn an Express Lane bonus of 300,000 points, both balls are released, and both ramps are lit for super express way bonuses of 100,000 points per ride. These ramps remain juiced until one of your balls drains. Since the Express Lane ball lock lights after each passenger pickup, multiball can be repeated over and over again, and prove to be very lucrative in terms of scoring.

Taxi appeals to me for various reasons, but the two most notable factors have to be the difficultly and the nostalgia. As I mentioned previously, a lot of Taxi depends on timing. You must not only have a good feel for the various shots on this machine, but you also have to put yourself in a good position in terms of making the various shots that are timed (i.e. jackpots and express lane bonuses). The ramps on Taxi are also fairly steep and must be hit with precision and with enough speed to make it up and around them. Sometimes soft or off-the-mark shots will come back at you straight down the middle causing you to drain or tilt via saving. 


What eventually put Taxi in the #1 spot above Cactus Canyon was it's affordability (around $2000 +/- depending on condition), accessibility (not too hard to find), and most importantly, for me anyway, nostalgia.  I love the translite on Taxi, the cast of characters is fun and amusing and harkens back to the oddity that was the 80's and the Cold War era.  I once owned a Cyclone that depicts Ronald and Nancy Reagan riding a roller coaster; it was neat to reunite ole Ron and Gorbi again for at least a little while. I had a great time playing these machines growing up and have an even better time playing them now that I'm older and understand the rules. 

The original score and music for the different modes in Taxi is amazing and the bell inside the cabinet lets others in the arcade (or your garage/basement/....kitchen???) know that you're a force to be reckoned with. Taxi also has tons of flashers and puts on one of the best light shows and attract modes of any pinball game, especially when compared to those of its era. The artwork was done by none other than the infamous Python Angelo. If you haven't seen his other work (and you probably have without knowing it), be sure to check it out.

Though I've been criticized on other forums for being a fanboy of Bally/Williams games as opposed to the new Stern models, I can honestly say that my preference has a lot to do with machines that just "feel right" to me. Stern was not for the biggest part of the 80's and most of the 90's, so having few, if none of these games to play growing up had a great impact on what I prefer and enjoy. I'm not saying that Stern games aren't good, on the contrary, I play quite a lot of them in my local arcade and enjoy them very much, it's just that I have a fondness for what is familiar (probably the same reason that I prefer the 2600 and NES to newer consoles or those I never owned growing up). To each their own, and if your a Stern fan, by all means, enjoy and play/own what you like. I hope you find some of these machines out there and take some time to throw on some credits and enjoy them. Whatever you like, I hope this blog encourages you to try out pinball.

P.S. I would be eternally grateful if someone would let me know if they were to come across a Marylin translite. I have a Marylin machine, but sadly the translite must have been replaced down the road with a Lola......




Afterward:

Coming up with this Top 10 list has been fun, but ultimately very challenging. I can say for a fact that since I started this blog series, some of these machines have fallen down the rungs of my Top 10 and even others have fallen out.  I constructed this list before I began this series and decided to ultimately stay with the original list as a means of capturing my thoughts for that specific moment in time.  Since compiling that list, I have acquired/sold some machines, played some from others collections, and with my recent trip to Pinburgh last weekend, I have gained a better sense of what games appeal to me.  With that said, I will not change my Top 10, but instead, offer a follow-up post with some "Honorable Mentions." I appreciate all of you who have followed this blog and look forward to hearing what machines you might have played and really enjoyed.

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