chip@t4test.UUCP (Chip Rosenthal) (06/03/84)
I recently read a newspaper article which called pinball the next trend in arcade games. I read with interest, but dismissed the article as simplay fluff journalism. (How often does the "living" section of your nespaper have articles on the latest arcade game craze? They certainly are dime a dozen.) However, I had an experience recently which suggested that there might be something to that article. I walked into an arcade to find one room full of pinball machines. Oh, the wonder of it all!! (BTW, for you Silicon Valley types, the place is on El Camino in Mountain View between Bailey and El Monte.) In celebration of this, I thought maybe we could start a pinball best/worst list. I will nominate myself as moderator. Please mail responses to me, and I will summarize. To begin, I would like to offer a few definations. First of all, lets settle upon what we are talking about. Pinball is a game centered around the movement of a metal ball, and the player is usually allowed many chances each turn to effect the movement of the ball. I am so specific here to rule out such games as "Baby Pac Man" (half pinball, half video) and the old baseball games (only one chance per turn to effect (i.e. hit) the ball). As long as I am getting arbitrary, allow me to break pinball machines into some catagories. Possibly the best way to make this division is chronological. However, I don't think this is practical. After all, do you know when your favorite machine was manufactured? Instead, I will divide the machines into three areas: electronic, mechanical, and antique. Electronic machines are typified by digital scoring mechanisms. Antique machines are typified by manual ball loading (i.e. the machine has two plungers, one to load the ball and one to shoot it). Mechanical machines fall into the middle. If anybody takes strong exception to my definations, or would like to expand upon them, please send me mail. I will modify the above as required. Now, nominations for the catagory of..... --------------------------------------------------------------------- Best Mechanical Machine -- Gold Strike (Gottlieb) ---- ---------- ------- ---- ------ -------- This has to be one of the world's most successful pinball designs, after all Gottlieb produced this machine under at least three different names. First there was "El Dorado". Later, "Gold Strike" was released. Gottlieb later released an electronic machine with a space theme which had a playfield extremely similar to "Gold Strike." I don't remember the name, but it wasn't worth remembering. "Gold Strike" was a classic. If you were good at it, one dime got you through an entire afternoon. If you weren't, it ate your change very quickly. There was nothing fancy to it; lots and lots of targets to hit. If you got them all down, then they all reset and you hit the lit ones for up to ten free balls. (Where legal, you could sometimes get free games.) When you got the WOW lit up, the adrenelin really got pumping. I remember back in school there was one guy who was superb on this machine. He would play it with his hands and feet. His gentle nudges on the legs of the machine sometimes resulted in the most incredible saves. You could spend an afternoon just watching this guy play. Best Electronic Machine -- Black Knight (Williams) ---- ---------- ------- ----- ------ -------- One thing happened in the transition from mechanical games to electronic games--machines became stingy with free balls. You no longer could rack up free balls, but only got a "shoot again." I've found "Black Knight" to be one machine which would still give you some good playing time for your quarter. It has a full array of features: voice synthesis, multi-ball, magna-save, multi-level and tilt warning. However, these added to the quality of the game rather than simply exist as gimicks. There are several things to shoot for on this machine. There are four banks of three targets, which when knocked down enough light up the free ball and later the special. There was a trap up at the top, which would hold balls which would be released at once. The magna-save by no means provided a sure way of keeping the ball in play. Quick fingers and prudent judgement were needed to use this effectively. All in all, a very exciting and challenging game. Worst Electronic Machine -- Xenon (Bally) ----- ---------- ------- ----- ----- This machine has more sexual innuendoes stuffed into it than a full season of "Three's Company." Starting with the picture on the back glass with the woman with outstretched hands. The worst part of this machine is the voice synthesis. The problem isn't the quality of the synthesis, but what the machine says. When you start the game a male voice invites you to "enter Xenon." Throughout the game a throaty female voice goads you to get into the hole. When the ball bounced of half of the bumpers the machine would say, "bang" in a male voice. The other half makes it say "bang" in a female voice. When the ball starts bouncing around very quickly you hear a stream of sounds which resemble a pair of computers in heat. By the way, it was a pretty boring game too. Little skill; lots of luck. Your typical quarter eater. Best Mechanical Manufacturer -- Gottlieb ---- ---------- ------------ -------- My second favorite mechanical machine is "Dimension", another Gottlieb machine. These machines are similar in character. They have lots of targets, which when knocked down, present the chance for lots of free balls. There is lots of room for finesse and physical movement and finesse in these machines. But watch out for the tilt, it is a killer. Best Electronic Manufacturer -- Williams ---- ---------- ------------ -------- Williams did more for introducing technology to pinball than any other manufacturer. In most instances, they have been successful at making this technology an integral part of the game and fun, rather than just a gimmick. "Gorgar" and "Firepower", both predecessors to "Black Knight", introduced many ideas which were quite revolutionary at the time. All of these machines are still today a challenge. Worst Mechanical Manufacturer -- Bally ----- ---------- ------------ ----- I've never met a Bally machine I didn't hate. Worst Electronic Manufacturer -- Bally ----- ---------- ------------ ----- Ditto. Widest Machines (Consolation Catagory) -- Atari ------ -------- ----------- -------- ----- You would think that the folks who revolutionized the arcade industry would have had some effect on pinball. While they might have been the first to be electronic, Williams did a much better job. As a consolation, I will grant that Atari made the widest pinball machines. Their machines were neither especially good nor bad, just wide. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Summary: Best Mechanical Machine: Gold Strike (Gottlieb) Best Mechanical Manufacturer: Gottlieb Worst Mechanical Manufacturer: Bally Best Electronic Machine: Black Knight (Williams) Worst Electronic Machine: Xenon (Bally) Best Eleectonic Manufacturer: Williams Worst Electronic Manufacturer: Bally Widest Machines: Atari Your turn folks..... -- Chip Rosenthal, Intel/Santa Clara {idi|intelca|icalqa|imcgpe|kremvax|qubix|ucscc}!t4test!{chip|news}
chip@t4test.UUCP (Chip Rosenthal) (06/03/84)
Somehow you can spend hours and hours proofreading an article, but something always gets botched up in the end. The title of my article was supposed to be "crazy flipper fingers", but I muffed it. Sigh. And I thought it was such a clever title.... -- Chip Rosenthal, Intel/Santa Clara {idi|intelca|icalqa|imcgpe|kremvax|qubix|ucscc}!t4test!{chip|news}
gnome@olivee.UUCP (Gary Traveis) (06/05/84)
In response to your mention that "pinballs are in and video is out", I have to agree -- the price of video games have dropped to a point at or below pinball machines. The newer pins are going for up to 3 times their original cost (of say, one year ago). I would like nominate Flash as the best "transitition" pin because of it's interesting layout, good sound (no voice) and (because its a Williams) its reliability (drop targets being the only offender in it). Xenon is pretty sick. For worst sound -- Sharpshooter. The old style BEEPs and BOOPS make you wish that electronics had never happened, at least not within hearing distance! Uhm, being a newcomer to this rolling silver mess, I don't have much else to say. Gary (hplabs,ios,allegra,fortune)oliveb!olivee!gnome
stank@uiucdcs.UUCP (06/05/84)
#R:t4test:-61700:uiucdcs:10600165:000:424 uiucdcs!stank Jun 4 20:38:00 1984 What a way to ruin my day. Here I am only 33 and I find out that the pinball machines I played as a youth are now classified as "antiques". Come to think of it, I've heard young whipper-snappers speaking the same way about '56 Thunderbirds. Heavens, maybe they think of me as an antique! S. Krolikoski U. Of Illinois Didn't it used to take longer to become aged??
marcus@pyuxt.UUCP (M. G. Hand) (06/05/84)
it was funnier as "carzy".
ron@brl-vgr.ARPA (Ron Natalie <ron>) (06/05/84)
I am not sure I see the reason why you prefer the title "antique" to the manual ball loaders (I assume you are referring to the ones where if there are five games there are five balls in the machine and you can punch all of them into play if you want). There is quite a period where both types of machines were made. I favor the distinction between the electro-mechanical (I've got a Prospector, full of all kinds of relays and steppers) to the electronic marvels (such as Xenon). However, the use of a seven segment display (most all machines have DIGITAL displays) is not always an indicator of an electronic machine because I have seen many of the classic games retrofitted with the more reliable counters. A better indication is whether it use assinine sythesised sounds rather than the classic chimes and dings. -Ron
ron@brl-vgr.ARPA (Ron Natalie <ron>) (06/05/84)
OK...I now can think of another category...gadget machines. Those distinguished by the fact that they are out of the ordinary through some thing but still are rightly classed as pinball machines. We've all probably seen the older giant machines, but I saw and played once and have never seen again a two player machine where the two players stood on opposite sides of the backglass that was centered over the middle of the machine. After each turn the playing field tilted so it was downhill toward the player who was up. Flippers at both ends of course. =Ron
rcb@fortune.UUCP (Robert Binstock) (06/05/84)
My favorites among the "mechanicals" (I HATE the electronic ones -- stopped playing when the mechanicals started disappearing) were Royal Flush (easy to learn, almost impossible to master) and Aztec (in many ways a very irritating machine but extremely hard to beat and very satisfying when you did). Anyone else have comments on these machines? Bob Binstock
ajs@hpfcla.UUCP (06/09/84)
My personal favorite pinball machine is "Sing Along" (by Gottlieb, I think). A silly name, not very impressive to look at, only single-player (gasp), no dummy zero in the "ones" scoring position. A simple but enjoyable playing surface, though. Key features are channels down both sides and a row of four kicker holes across the center. The main object is to light up all four lights in a column below each hole, by hitting various targets. As lights come on, hole values increase. All four in column causes the hole to occasionally light up for a special (replay). Lighting all sixteen is a rare thrill, as one of the holes is always then lit (liberal settings). One of the nice things about the machine was that most (all?) features accumulate over an entire game. Foo on the newer machines that virtually reset every time you slurp one ball. Alan Silverstein, Hewlett-Packard Fort Collins Systems Division, Colorado {ihnp4 | hplabs}!hpfcla!ajs, 303-226-3800 x3053, N 40 31'31" W 105 00'43"
tim@callan.UUCP (06/13/84)
[] "Sing Along" by Gottlieb is my favorite. The one at Caltech is set at 5 balls / game, and 3 games/quarter. Pays off in games instead of extra balls, too. Great when tripped! There was a "Northstar" at Caltech that had manual ball loading. It had five balls, so you could have all five in play at once if you wanted. Things are real frantic when all five balls head for the flippers at once! I think this was also a Gottlieb. I saw a wierd one called "Orbitar" in an arcade in Pasadena ( Pak-Mann arcade, for those of you fortunate(?) enough to be in Pasadena ) that had rotating rubber disks instead of bumpers. The disks sit at the bottom of devpressions in the playing surface, so the ball comes in, spirals down the depression, hits the rubber, and is spun around back out of the depression. It is bizarre! -- "Now Groo does what Groo does best!" {decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!cithep!tim Tim Smith {decvax,ucbvax,cithep}!trwrb!wlbr!callan!tim ihnp4!wlbr!callan!tim