Request Pick your first choice for a classic early 80's Bally table.

dtown8532 · Jun 3, 2012

Bobby King recently said that, starting with the Gorgar DLC, purchasers may be able to vote on a classic 70's to early 80's Bally pin that Farsight would recreate in the future. I've posted a poll of ten Bally Tables from this era that I think would be a possibility. You may ask, "only ten?" Here's my reasoning. I don't think they'll do any EM's just yet. I don't think it will be a licensed table. So no Kiss or Flash Gordon

among others. These are just ten of the most possible candidates I could come up with. If you're hard set on another pin, post away.

Personally, I would be very surprised if its not one of these four which I've listed in order of my preference.
1. Centaur - Awesome speech. Great artwork and playfield layout. Fairly deep ruleset for its time. Multiball with an auto plunger which was almost unheard of then.
2. Fathom - Beautiful artwork and very cool sound effects. Another unique playfield layout with a very cool way of locking and releasing the balls for multiball. Unusual use of reversed inlanes/outlanes.
3. Eight Ball Deluxe - Very popular table with around 10k sold. Pretty deep ruleset for its time. My favorite of any pool themed table.
4. Xenon - Superb artwork and quite "dirty" with the female moaning at different times throughout the game. I just played a beautifully restored one last month and, while it was fun, the game was a bit shallow.

The Doctor · Jun 4, 2012

couldn't decide between Centaur and Xenon, but ended up going with Xenon.

Bowflex · Jun 4, 2012

Fathom is way underrated. Really awesome table that nearly never gets a mention.

Fuseball · Jun 4, 2012

That was a tough choice. Went with Fathom in the end, simply because it is so beautiful... but I enjoy playing almost everything on that list!

Spectrum is a very unusual game with a complicated ruleset. Not many made but I played one for hours at a show recently. Eight Ball Deluxe is still the best Pool-themed pinball ever made. Medusa is another one that looks amazing and has those cool zipper-flippers. Vector would also look great in TPA, although it's too cramped a playfield for my tastes. Centaur is plain awesome. How can anyone not love a game with a 5-ball multiball?

mmmagnetic · Jun 4, 2012

It's fun doing a little research for these tables, never heard of them, but man, Centaur looks stunning - dirty, grim, black and white with lots of red lights... that would look brilliant on the iPad retina screen

Jeff Strong · Jun 4, 2012

I think I'm gonna have to pick Centaur.....but I'd love to see some of the others eventually as well. I love this era of machines.

Heretic · Jun 4, 2012

Paragons the only one played. Seem to remember some version of 8 ball , i say gimmie them all you can have my pennies take them!

Bowflex · Jun 4, 2012

Paragon looks really interesting to me. Embryon looks pretty bizzarre so I wouldn't mind trying that one out eventually.

Brian Clark · Jun 5, 2012

I voted Xenon, but I had a hard time choosing between that and EBD. I was also leaning towads Centaur, but I wanted to stick to one I played IRL. I wish Mata Hari was on the list. That is one fun pin. Then again, I wouldn't really pick it over a few of the others.

dtown8532 · Jun 6, 2012

Brian Clark said:
I voted Xenon, but I had a hard time choosing between that and EBD. I was also leaning towads Centaur, but I wanted to stick to one I played IRL. I wish Mata Hari was on the list. That is one fun pin. Then again, I wouldn't really pick it over a few of the others.

I never played a real Centaur either but have played a ton of it on VP and FP. I've also watched just about every video on You Tube I could find. I just can't get enough of that reverbed voice that was implemented just for this table (and Centaur II). It's so awesome that I've taken sound bites from it and put them on my phone as message alerts. "Bad move, human!" Oh yea. On a side note, after going to pinball shows on and off for about ten years I finally saw one in person last month in the flea market area of Pinfest. It was already sold unfortunately. Otherwise, it may have been going home with me.

Sean · Jun 14, 2012

I vividly remember Space Invaders from my first arcade circa 1980. The name being the same as an iconic video game of the time combined with artwork that was clearly "influenced" by Alien created a disconnect in my ten-year old brain. I cannot remember if this was a particularly good table or not, but it stands alongside 8 Ball Deluxe as my most-remembered Bally tables.

Dante Kleinberg · Jun 15, 2012

Eight Ball Deluxe for me! It's the only one of the choices I've spent any time on, and it's pretty fun.

toro · Jul 6, 2012

Centaur is the choise! But both Xenon and Eight Ball Deluxe are favourites as well. I played Centaur at the local bowling alley in the early/mid 80:s. Fond memories.

an ox · Jul 6, 2012

EBD. Never played the real thing but played the hell out of the early 90s PC simulation. I'd really enjoy having that table to play again on my iPad.

Sean · Jul 6, 2012

Having seen video of Xenon it's jogged memories - love too see that as well. I honestly wouldn't mind a break from the DMD stuff in favour of more early solid state and a few EM tables, but I'm sure I'm in the minority there.

RetroDude · Jul 6, 2012

Sean said:
Having seen video of Xenon it's jogged memories - love too see that as well. I honestly wouldn't mind a break from the DMD stuff in favour of more early solid state and a few EM tables, but I'm sure I'm in the minority there.

/start semi off-topic comments
You are probably right about being in the minority, but many of us "older folks" that remember playing the older machines are certainly willing to pay for the privledge of seeing some of our old favorites again, even if in digital form.

Paying more than apparently some of the younger generation is willing to pay for much of anything.
I would love to see FarSight do the entire top 100 list... not just the top 100 SS machines, but continue and do the top 100 EM machines.

Hopefully they've listened to the PC folks and will deliver a product that can be successfully used in full size multi-monitor cabinet builds.. with the ability to trigger external shakers, lights, knockers, real DMD displays for machines that use them, etc.

I'm willing to pay extra.. even so far as purchasing each game indivisually as discs or "pro" downloads at a premium price.
I've not been a VP person for various reasons, but am willing to spend a small fortune to have the ultimate licensed arcade machine.
That would include buying virtually every machine they are willing to release.

(and yes, that even would include the dreaded Jive Time!)

/end semi off-topic comments

Back to the topic...

ALL of them!

Richard B · Jul 6, 2012

Fuseball said:
Medusa . . . looks amazing and has those cool zipper-flippers.

What are zipper flippers? They don't look any different from regular ones, so far as I can see.

RetroDude · Jul 6, 2012

Richard B said:
What are zipper flippers? They don't look any different from regular ones, so far as I can see.

from the glossary at IPDB.org ...

Zipper Flipper —
A trademarked feature found on some Bally games that (temporarily) closed (or "zipped" up) the gap between the lowest flippers when certain game goals were accomplished, such as lighting up a series of targets, thereby preventing the ball in play from draining down the center drain. Bally parts catalogs refered to this feature as the Flipper-Zipper Assembly.
Also used on some Williams games, where it was known as "Closing Flipper Action".

source: http://www.ipdb.org/glossary.php#Zipper_Flipper

Richard B · Jul 6, 2012

RetroDude said:
from the glossary at IPDB.org ...

Zipper Flipper —
A trademarked feature found on some Bally games that (temporarily) closed (or "zipped" up) the gap between the lowest flippers when certain game goals were accomplished, such as lighting up a series of targets, thereby preventing the ball in play from draining down the center drain. Bally parts catalogs refered to this feature as the Flipper-Zipper Assembly.
Also used on some Williams games, where it was known as "Closing Flipper Action".

source: http://www.ipdb.org/glossary.php#Zipper_Flipper

Cool. Thanks.

Sean · Jul 7, 2012

@RetroDude: count me among those who think Farsight should buck the "race to the bottom" trend in pricing for downloads. £2.99 for two digitised versions of real pinballs is a gift, really. I just paid 69p for a full release on my iPad, Fruit Ninja. It's not brilliant, but I find it difficult to see how it could possibly be profitable at a price that low. Madness!

Of course anything more than free gets complaints. I'll be curious to see what the indie games market looks like in a couple years time...

Request Pick your first choice for a classic early 80's Bally table.

Pick your first choice of these classic Bally tables

Spectrum

Elektra

Vector

Medusa

Centaur

Fathom

Xenon

Embryon

Eight Ball Deluxe

Paragon

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