New pinball: Game of Thrones (Premium)

Game of Thrones was everywhere when I got this. The HBO series was at its peak, and it felt like everyone I knew was talking about it. I have always been a big fan of the old Medieval Madness, so I figured a Game of Thrones machine would be a perfect middle ground: the show I was obsessed with, wrapped in the medieval feel that Medieval Madness is so loved for. I got it new in box, again from Troy.

Game of Thrones, the first machine into the newly finished basement

It was actually the first machine to go into the freshly refurbished basement. You can see it in the photo, sitting all alone in a room that had just gotten new paint, new carpet, new ceilings, new baseboards, new lighting, the works. (More on that whole project another time.)

It is a Steve Ritchie design, the same designer as my old Star Trek, and the Premium has a great upper castle playfield, an interactive dragon, and an Iron Throne. You even pick your house before you start, which changes how you play. For a good while, watching the show and playing the pin, I really enjoyed it.

Its one real drawback was the lighting. The playfield was packed with very strong, very vibrant LEDs that could create an almost strobing, seizure-inducing effect. Sometimes it was just too much. Stern has gotten a lot better at this since, programming calmer, nicer LEDs, but this particular game’s lights were intense.

And then the final season landed. I was so disappointed in how they ended it that the show went from my single favorite thing in the world to something I kind of viewed as a joke. All those years of building characters and stories and plotlines, and that was the payoff. I had read the books ages ago and always loved them, though they were unfinished then and, somehow, are still unfinished today. The moment the show wrapped, I basically stopped playing this machine. I tried a few more times. I tried to disconnect it from the show and just enjoy it as a medieval game. But between the harsh LEDs and a theme I no longer cared about, I knew it had to go.

So it became the third machine I eventually traded away, this time for my Godzilla.