Start your engines — Data East’s 1991 Checkpoint is a rally-racing machine with a genuine Porsche Carrera perched above the Nitro target and an ignition key serving as your start button, a tactile little thrill before the first ball even launches. Designed by Joe Kaminkow and Ed Cebula with Paul Faris art, it carries a shaker motor and an auto-shooter, and with 3,500 built it found a comfortable home on early-’90s routes. The DMD-era presentation and the rumble of that shaker gave players a taste of the motion-rich games that were just over the horizon.
What competitors love — and casual players quickly discover — is how forgiving the path to big points can be. You really don’t need to do much beyond looping the right ramp over and over; do it enough and multiball lights at the right orbit, while ten consecutive right-ramp shots cash in for ten million. It’s one of those satisfying “groove it and watch the numbers spin” layouts. The spinner is the other darling of the strategy crowd, the kind of shot tournament veterans will hammer all day for steady, low-risk points. The skill shot keeps you honest, asking for a full plunge followed by a quick ramp shot within a couple of seconds.
Checkpoint doesn’t try to bury you in rules — it’s a clean, fast, racing-themed crowd-pleaser built around a couple of deeply repeatable shots, which is exactly why it remains an approachable tournament pick and a friendly machine for newcomers. Find the right-ramp rhythm, feed the spinner, and let the laps pile up. Sometimes the winning line really is just the fast one, lap after lap after lap.