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(Electromechanical Version) Bally released Evel Knievel in June of the year. Both electromechanical and solid-state versions of the game were fabricated. The reason two different platforms were made was due to the newness of the solid-state platform not being fully trusted or many arcade operators not being versed in the solid-state computerized machines. The “old faithful” mechanical versions used the same technology since the beginning of pinball that included relays, steppers, and score motors. This game was produced in mass quantity in the solid-state format with 14,000 pieces being fabricated. This game is one of only 155 made. This is probably one of the best examples of this rare run of machines. The play parallels the solid-state version, but an accumulated memory of targets hit isn’t stored in memory and awarded. This game just remembers your last hit of the last target. Enjoy!This rare add-a-ball game was released in April. It was designed by John Osbourne with artwork by Gordon Morison. A minimal total of 270 units were soldered together at the time. This is a small number for a pinball run. The replay version had a much larger production and the name of that game was Hit The Deck. As you can see from the backglass, Gottlieb tried to experiment with a score reel that was completely different in coloring. This was to attract attention to the game and attract quarters. The object of the game is to roll over the red number and/or black number sequence inherent in the game. If you are skillful enough to get the 9 to Ace sequence, some wow options will light up to score extra balls. A kickback feature is incorporated into the game in the upper-left area. This single-player game is challenging and a rare sight to see.June marked the month when Bally let Greg Kmiec and Christian Marche unveil their newest creation to the pinball world. This two-player game awards an extra ball when the A-B-C-D sequence is completed. C and D when completed, award the double bonus. The third flipper in the middle right of the playfield gives the player maximum control to shoot for the Aladdin’s Alley. Hitting the rollover at the top of this shot scores the lit value and then advances the value for the next completed shot. If you’re skillful enough to make it to the 5,000 shot, the next shot scores a special. This special remains lit for the balance of the ball in play. All in all, a typical Bally game of the era. This game was released at the same time as the classic Captain Fantastic Bally machine (that game is in the museum). Captain Fantastic made Bally #1.This four-player machine is almost always considered to be in the top five best solid-state games of its genre. Brian Eddy designed this machine with art by Doug Watson. 3,450 examples of it were made. This fast-paced game is not based on the “Mars Attacks” movie but ironically came out the same time as the movie’s release. A sequel to this game is also in the museum by the name “Revenge From Mars.” The main theme of this amusing game is to complete the five attack waves activated by hitting the three drop targets in front of the saucer. Doing so drops the targets and allows shots to the saucer. After so many saucer hits, the saucer explodes into a flurry of strobe lights (first time used on a pinball machine) and sounds. If you make it to Mars Attacks, the game goes into hyper mode with a flurry of options and actions. Total annihilation of Mars is the ultimate goal. Many more feats and multi-balls are also present.Big Brave is a two-player electromechanical machine. 3,450 units were produced. Ed Krynski designed the machine and Gordon Morison was in charge of the artwork. This game was a typical Gottlieb game of the era. It has drop targets, resetting targets, bonus feature, double bonus option, and a special. Making the B I G rollover lights the pop bumpers. Hitting all five drop targets awards 5,000 points. Hitting the last drop target left when the B I G is hit awards a special. The vari-target, as it was called, was an exclusive Gottlieb design. As you hit the target – depending how hard you hit it – would result in bigger point values. It will then reset to be hit again and again. A four-player version of this game, Big Indian, was also produced.This one-player September release was designed by Steve Kordek with art package laid out by Christian Marche. 1,130 units were made, which is a pretty low production run. This is an add-a-ball game with a replay version also released called “Superstar.” This machine incorporates not one but three pop-up posts to deflect the ball from draining through the side drains as well as the flipper drain. The object of the machine is to extend your playing time by winning more free balls. This is achieved by completing the s-u-p-e-r roll-overs at the top of the play field. Doing so lights the hidden center kick-out hole. By dropping the target in front of this hole, one has a shot at the extra ball prize. If both specials are lit, two free balls are awarded. Completing each five-star sequence also advances the center shot award. Score is another to earn extra balls per game. Replay games were much more popular back in this era, but not every locale allowed replays.This game is another breakthru game by Williams. 13,075 units were made. Steve Ritchie designed the game and Tony Ramunni did the art package. Larry Demar programmed the game. Black Knight invented the “magna save” feature which is activated by the second flipper buttons on the side of the cabinet. When active, timing is critical. By activating this feature, the ball, which was about to drain down the side drains, is magically transported to the ball guide lane back to the flipper for continued play. This game also incorporated the “bonus ball” feature if more than one player was playing the game. The person with the highest score is awarded at the end of the game with a bonus round, which is timed to try and pop a game. Finally, this game is the first game to have a two-level playfield. Steve Ritchie, the designer, used his voice as the Black Knight.Another rare machine stands before you. Although 2,885 units were produced, they were all sent to France as a promotion in a contest to market Canada Dry soda. Designed by Ed Krynski and art by Gordon Morrison, this game was released in the US as a one player, two player and four player version. If you like drop targets this is your game. Fifteen drop targets live in this playfield design! If you’re skillful enough to hit all the upper drop targets, the side extra ball rollovers activate. The same is true if you hit the bottom five drop targets. If, however, you’re skillful enough to complete all fifteen targets, the specials are activated. Score is another way to win. The machines put on location in France provided high-scoring winners with monetary prizes from Canada Dry. I wish they would do this in the united States, especially in Atlantic City.May was the release month for this game. Designer Ed Krynski and artist Gordon Morison put together the package. Production run was low, at 675 units. This is an add-a-ball game variant, the replay version was called High Hand. The challenging part of this playfield design is trying to lock a ball in the eject hole for extra balls. Four batteries of drop targets in four colors are along the sides of the playfield. Making a completion of a color of drop targets increases the value of the eject and side drains. If all the drop targets are completed, the extra ball features light up. Score is another way to win balls set by the operator. No match units were incorporated into these games as, again, that was considered a form of gambling, i.e. winning a free game.This beautiful piece of art was designed by Jim Patla with artwork by Paul Faris. 3,700 units were designed and a reprise run of 1,550 games were made in 1983 due to its popularity. The first thing one notices when walking up to this game is the color theme and the vibrant lighting. Pressing either flipper button when the game is in attract mode gives you an instructional light show on its features; the orb feature is the most exciting. Spelling out orbs by completing the drop target sequence stores another potential ball into play if the release orbs target is hit. This target has a magnet under it which holds the ball in position when the orbs are ejected. The balls are ejected from under the playfield through a baseball machine pitcher-like mechanism mounted upside down in the shooter lane. This mechanism was inspired by a Bally ‘50s game called Balls A Poppin. The captive ball drop target sequence is another tough goal to accomplish.Here is one you do not see every day. This is a Gottlieb Challenger from 1971. Only 110 of these were produced back in the day. How many are still around now … head-to-head pinball game with two players at opposite ends of the playfield, simultaneous soccer like play, can not be played with one player. Each player has flipper buttons which control only those flippers facing the opponent. Ball enters play from between the flippers. Game has 8 flippers and vertically mounted score reels. The playfield actually tilts towards and away from the players, depending on which end served the ball.This game is one of the most colorful machines ever produced and it has a lot of toys to boot. 2704 of them were made and when they came out, demand was low so many sat around for years in their shipping boxes. Today it’s a top 10 collectible machine. John papadiuk designed the game with linda deal penning the artwork. Neon, disappearing pop bumper, managerie ball, magnetized ringmaster, cannon ball backglass animation and a dot matrix display embedded above the playfield are a few of its unique features. The object of the game is to complete all the playfield insert parts by defeating them. This spells out the word circus.. The ringmaster must also be completed. If you’re skillful enough to do this, you become part of the circus which brings you into 6 levels of multiball competition to complete the game. Good luck!!!September was the month for the introduction of this game. Both solid-state and mechanical versions were produced (9,950 versus 550 units, respectively). Ed Krynski designed the machine with art by Gordon Morison. A roto-target was incorporated into the upper right of the game, a Gottlieb exclusive. Hitting the A-B-C rollovers lights up the extra ball target and increases the value of the roto-targets as well as the drop target values. Knocking down all the drop targets increases the bonus multiplier value. The second time this feat is completed lights the special roto-target value. This game also features a bonus advance bank which increases to 20,000 points and a two to five times bonus multiplier feature. Score is the other way to win games.This machine is one in a trilogy that Williams produced with an amusement park theme. 9,400 were made with design accolades going to Barry Oursler and art by Python Anghelo. Ronald and Nancy Reagan appear on the backglass. The Comet and Cyclone are two roller coasters from the Coney Island era. If you ride the Comet ramp six times, a million-point shot is possible. The Cyclone ramp in the upper right awards the accumulated jackpot on the backglass if hit three times. Hitting the spook house drop target exposes a gobble hole which spins the backglass wheel for a point award or extra ball. A ferris wheel bonus a shooting gallery bonus and a bonus multiplier shot in the lower left complete this impressive package. “You pay your money, you take your chances” in this classic machine.This four-player machine was produced in November of the year with 2,675 units fabricated. It was designed by Ed Krynski with art penned by Art Stenholm. Technically, a couple of firsts were incorporated into this machine for Gottlieb, like an automatic ball lifter, decagon score reels and carousel roto-targets. The carousel roto-target allow one to shoot at one or two targets at a time if flipper savvy. The star on the unit awards an extra ball. The object of the game is to achieve high-enough scores to award replays. The big points are awarded when the two 10x lights under a roto-target light up, awarding 100 times the value of the number hit. The most attractive gadget built into the game is the dancing ballerina in the backglass, which dances when certain elements of the play field are achieved. A highly collectible game in its own right.There are 7 Doctors, as one can plainly see from the backglass… quite conveniently, they are numbered 1-7. Each Doctor has the effect of changing the rules of one area of the Playfield, making a list of the rules all the more annoying and probably confusing. First some general information about the Doctors… there are many ways to “spot” doctors throughout the game – one is awarded at the start of any ball, and can be spotted through the Transmat target or Video Mode. At the start of a ball (or when a ball has been locked), you get to choose the “current” doctor – his picture will flash on the backglass. When a doctor- spotting shot is made, the current doctor will become solidly lit (so his attributes are carried over for the rest of the game), and the “current” doctor becomes the previously unlit doctor directly to the left of the previous one. There are 2 ways to spot all seven doctors – either go through them all one-by-one, or shoot the Emperor Daleks jackpot. Either way, all of them will be lit for the rest of the game, and you receive an additional bonus of 2OM, as well as a small animation, which plays even after a tilt! After all 7 doctors are spotted, they can be spotted a second (third, etc) time, and running through all 7 a second time awards another 2OM bonus. Also, each doctor spotted in the game (this count may be more than 7) is worth a 1M bonus at the end of the last ball (so don’t tilt it!), and this bonus (unlike the regular bonus) is multiplied by the Playfield X.Demolition Man is a Williams pinball machine released in February 1994. It is based on the motion picture of the same name. It is part of WMS’ SuperPin line of widebody games. Sylvester Stallone (John Spartan) and Wesley Snipes (Simon Phoenix) provided custom speech for this game during ADR sessions at Warner Brothers Studios in Los Angeles under the direction of Jon Hey. Hey scored the music of the pinball game in part based upon the movie score by Academy Award winner Elliot Goldenthal, but including new music. Multiball modes This game is centered on multiball modes. The player has to shoot the left ramp when the “freeze” light is lit (lit by the right inlane) to “lock” a ball. When the required amount of locks are made, the player has to shoot the left loop to start multiball. Fortress Multiball (2 balls required) – A normal multiball mode with 3 jackpots and the “Super Jackpot”. 1-4 balls can be shot up. Museum Multiball (3 balls required) – Jackpots everywhere, except the standups. After the “Super Jackpot” the Multiball starts over. 3-6 balls can be shot up. Wasteland Multiball (4 balls required) – Same as “Fortress Multiball”. If not getting the lighting jackpots, the next jackpot will appear and the previous jackpot will stay. 4-8 balls can be shot up. Cryoprison Multiball (5 balls required) – The “Super Jackpot” is lit, from the beginning of the multiball. After getting the “Super Jackpot” it will lit again after hitting an arrow or more. Completing all four multiball modes lights the right ramp for the wizard award, Demolition Jackpot, which is the total amount of all the jackpots collected during the game. The Demolition Jackpot is lost if the ball drains. If you hit all jackpots in a multiball, the “Super Jackpot” light will lit. Getting the ball up to the “Cryo-Claw” whilst, you will get it. The “Super Jackpot” light turns off, if all the balls drain and the Multiball is over, the “Super Jackpot” is lost.This game was an “add-a-ball” game; the replay version was called 2001. Production run was 490 units. This was the first game to feature the in-line drop targets in a bank of targets. It was designed by Ed Krynski with art by Gordon Morison. A total of 20 drop targets divided into 5 targets per color. Knocking down a full left set of targets or a right set of targets awarded extra balls to be played during your current game (versus free games as the replay version awarded). The targets would reset after each ball. Extra balls were also awarded if certain scores were achieved as set by the operator. Previous high scores could be posted by the arcade on the backglass as a contest to try and beat the high score. This game was near the end of single-player Gottieb games with the smaller flippers. All in all, a classic game requiring accuracy in your shots to gain extra balls!This Norm Clark and Christian Marsche creation was also produced in an add-a-ball version called Love Bug as well as a four-player version called Dipsy Doodle. This symmetrical playfield design has a captive ball under the playfield which, when activated, rolls over a switch to score a bonus batch of points based on the value of the button when the feature is lit. The top kickout hole randomly selects bonus features to make the game more intriguing. A popup post between the flippers prevents ball drain down the middle of the playfield, but this post may be retracted just at the wrong time if the down-post targets are hit. An extra ball may be achieved if the center target is lit. This target also activates the “doodlebug” under the playfield. Finally, a free ball gate is incorporated into the machine if the appropriate combination of pop bumpers and rollovers are made. A fast-paced game that was popular in its day.If you like “Happy Days” of TV fame, you’ll immediately notice “The Fonz” on the backglass. George Christian designed this machine and Paul Faris penned the artwork package. The machine was very popular in the early days of solid-state pinball. 20,230 games were made and most of them were played down to the wood subsurface under the artwork due to excessive play. The pool-themed game is set up so that players one and three’s goal is to score balls 1 to 7 and players two and four are after the 9 to 15 balls. Once completed, the eight-ball target lights. This machine has a built-in memory recall of each player’s efforts and the game continues on your next ball where you left off. Bonus awards are 3,000 points per ball lit with a holdover feature from your previous accomplishments. The right bonus lane advances the winnings by 2x, 3x, 5x , super bonus, extra balls and specials.This game was very successful for the Bally company. It was initially released in 1981 as a full upright pinball with a production of 8,250 games. This version of the game in its third release had a run of 8,850 games. This cabinet was a unique design for Bally, as was used in a few other games like Pac-Man pinball. Designed by George Christian with art by Margaret Hudson, the pool-themed game is a classic. The basic object here is to hit all seven drop targets representing pool balls. The eight-ball drop target then pops up. Upon hitting it, “deluxe” lights up behind where the drop targets were. Making “deluxe” increases your bonus upon completion of the ball and advances the deluxe hold-over feature on the backglass. Hitting the in-line drop targets awards points and specials. The same is true if you shoot the left ramp to the top.
