Shooters | Fighting | Pinball | Platform | Racing | Eastern RPG | Sandbox | Cross-Genre
- Initiators / Followers
- Capsule Pitch Description: Description
- Implementation: Implementation
- Black Knight (1980) / Flash Gordon (1980)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Both Williams and Bally decided in 1980 that split-level playfields, with the upper third higher than the lower two-thirds, would be the next best thing in pinball.
- Implementation: Steve Ritchie, at Williams, had accidentally leaked that his upcoming table would be split-level. Not wanting to fall behind, Bally set to making its own split-level game and tasked then-rookie Claude Fernandez (freshly-hired from Williams) with it.
- Alien Poker (1980) / Asteroid Annie and the Aliens (1980)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Pinball games about playing poker with space aliens.
- Implementation: Aside from the theme, the two games have very little in common — Alien Poker is loaded with complex rules and state-of-the-art voices, while Asteroid Annie was a budget no-frills table released to use up leftover components.
- Hyperball (1981) / Rapid Fire (1982)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Target shooting games involving turrets that shoot miniature ball bearings; whether they could be considered pinball at all is debatable.
- Implementation: Hyperball was created by Williams in 1981 and involves trying to spell words by shooting the balls at holes labeled with letters from the alphabet. Rapid Fire by Bally four months later in 1982 is more akin to an analog version of Missile Command or the like.
- Caveman (1982) / Baby Pac-Man (1982)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Pinball games whose primary gimmick was an embedded maze video game whose difficulty was determined by the player's performance on the pinball table. Considered to be the precursor to the Video Modes utilized by modern pinball tables.
- Implementation: Caveman was released by Gottlieb in September 1982, while Baby Pac-Man was released by Bally a mere month later and was based on the hit Pac-Man series of arcade games.
- Gold Wings (1986) / F-14 Tomcat (1987)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Two pinballs based unofficially on Top Gun, with ace pilots against evil Communist fighters.
- Implementation: Gold Wings was released by Gottlieb in 1986, while F-14 Tomcat came out a year later from Williams Electronics.
- White Water (1993) / Wipe Out (1993)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Vacation resort-themed games released in 1993.
- Implementation: White Water was made by Williams and featured a white water rafting theme and voiceovers peppered with cowboy slang. Wipe Out was made by Gottlieb and centered around alpine slalom skiing featuring Surfer Dude voiceovers. Both games made heavy use of ramps.
- Tee'd Off (1993) / No Good Gofers (1994)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Two pinballs involving golfers and wisecracking gophers.
- Implementation: Tee'd Off was released by Gottlieb in 1993, while No Good Gofers came out four years later by Williams Electronics. Despite the suspiciously similar themes, however, both were most likely inspired by Caddyshack.
- World Cup Soccer by Bally (1994) / World Challenge Soccer by Gottlieb (1994)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Two tables released in February 1994 about soccer.
- Implementation: World Cup Soccer had a license for... well, the World Cup, while World Challenge Soccer had no such claim.
- Theatre of Magic (1995) / Pinball Magic (1995)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Two pinball games centered around Stage Magicians, both released in 1995. Theatre was the second title designed by John Popadiuk, while Pinball Magic was the first pinball from Capcom's new pinball division.
- Implementation: Theatre of Magic is centered on a magic performance, while Pinball Magic has the player being tested by a society of magicians and mystics.
- America's Most Haunted (2016) / Ghostbusters (2016)
- Capsule Pitch Description: Two pinball games with a comical take about a quartet of people who hunt down ghosts and capture them. America's Most Haunted was made by Spooky Pinball and was their first release; Ghostbusters was made by Stern, which had been in the business for 17 years at that point.
- Implementation: America's Most Haunted is themed on the paranormal investigators you'd find in real life, whereas Ghostbusters is, of course, Ghostbusters. Also, due to the close proximity of their releases, there were rumors that Stern made Ghostbusters in part as an attempt to take the wind out of Spooky's sails before they could really establish themselves as a competitor. This is unlikely, however, due to the long time needed to get a license sorted out—the Ghostbusters project likely began before America's Most Haunted.
