| | | By Bally.
The oldest, dirtiest and cheapest (one quarter per play, while all the other machines took two) machine in the room turned out my favorite by far, and one which I look forward to playing again. Everything here is metal and wood and fits the ball snugly, effortlessly showing up the big clunky plastic crap in its more modern competitors. The sound effects are moody and atmospheric rather than harsh and blaring, and hearing Rod Sterling's solemn tones at key points in the game somehow makes everything better. While I'd prefer it if the big collection of bumpers and chutes to the left didn't take up so much of the main table surface, and while I prefer a launch track that zips the ball all the way up to the top of the table instead of plunking it rather weakly into a little automated chute as is done here, there's something nice about this table's ramp layout. Everything just fits well together and there's always something to hit, and the table even surprises you with little traps and bumpers tucked away in unexpected places. And let us not overlook the fact that the four flippers open up many more shot angles and combos than you could have got with just two or three. Now this is good pinball. |
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| | | Hallelujah! My local diner has fixed this table up, now all four flippers trigger reliably and there's no tilt to the thing. It is wonderful. I somehow scored 128 million today, almost all on a single ball of course, and that was high enough to hit the extend, yippee! Not that I managed much with it but that's not the point.
The flippers and bumpers feel a little slack compared to beefier, newer tables, but after you get used to it you realize that this allows you fall more control over the pinball, while also requiring more skill to hit a really zippy shot. What a wonderful table. |
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| | | | 1993, Midway, under the Bally name. I'm surprised I was so enthusiastic about this table in my younger days, but perhaps I'd learned to understand it a bit better back then. Coming back fresh and new to the table after all these years, it was a harsh mistress indeed. The left side is indeed jammed, the upper right flipper was always getting in the way of the lower right one, and the shots from the two top flippers seemed obvious, but frustratingly off-line. And the two ramps squeezed into the center top are very steep and require a lot of oomph to get up. There seem to be quite a few modes but I got into just about none of them. |
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