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80s classic Ballys appreciation thread

steve brum

steve brum

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Although once the mainstay of every Pinball Owners Association show , love for the dot matrix sidelined these machines in later years. Now even folks born after these games were made has come to appreciated the pinnacle of design and artwork that came together when Bally were King , Williams were playing catch-up and Gottlieb were still hanging on to their EM heyday. People of a certain age (ahem) will also have a soft spot for these games so share your pride and joys.

http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?mfgid=47&mpu=18&sortby=name&searchtype=advanced

lucky to have owned every game on this list at some part apart from Frontier and Voltan. Selling BMX back in the 90s is one of my biggest regrets. Bob Thomson twisted my arm!

my favourites in order are:
1. Centaur
2. Fathom
3. Medusa

My Eight Ball Deluxe and Fireball 2 at Pinball Party 2012
Silverball Mania is Kettering Keith's

8 B DX and FB2.jpg
 
This is my kind of thread :D I'll have to dig out some pics :thumbs: Favourites are Flash Gordon, Fathom, Centaur, Fireball 2, Skateball etc etc If it was released in 1981 then it's pretty much the dogs b*llocks :)
 
This is just THREAD BAIT for me! Although I'm (relatively) new to pinball it's the golden age of late 70s, early 80s Bally pins that really do it for me. Although I wasn't there at the time, it's easy to see that Bally were leading the way at this time. So many beautiful machines.

As you can see from my signature below I'm a Bally whore. I've only ever owned 3 pins, all 3 are Bally and I've still got them all. PARAGON was my first and is still a project restoration. VECTOR was next - a worker that will get a full restoration when the others are done. And finally GOLD BALL. Bought for spares I quickly realised I'd be able to bring this rare and unloved machine back to life. So glad I did, as although it's a simple game right at the end of Bally's dominance it's still a beautiful machine.

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Top Bally's on my want list are:

MR & MRS PAC-MAN
CENTAUR II (has to be a 2 because the kooky cabinet matches M&MPM)
EIGHT BALL DELUXE LIMITED EDITION (again same weird cabinet as M&MPM and C2)
LOST WORLD (cos' it's the baby brother to PARAGON)
SPECTRUM
EMBRYON
FUTURE SPA
SPACE INVADERS (last 3 are all super widebodies like PARAGON)
 
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Amazing machines. I own 3. They are works of art.
Would love an Embryon and Eight Ball Deluxe.
 
Hi, its funny as I started collecting EM's first and even though I still have some my next big change in collecting was early SS bally's. I got my Grail game Centaur ( never played one and only read reviews so imported one) and then it snowballed from there.
I was forced to sell the following Nitro Ground Shaker, Star Trek and Embryon but still have Fathom, Kiss, Medusa, Elektra ( thanks Lee) and Paragon although they are mostly non working as I haven't the space or time to set up yet. The artwork is fantastic on these games.
I have never played Vector and have been tempted in the past and the only one in NZ is not working by the time I get to the collectors house it resides ( twice now) It is as good a game as I have read?
I only remember playing Paragon back in the day ( even though I played a lot of pinball - it still irks me to this day I don't remember the titles I played) and still love playing it.
Regards
Clive
 
I remember when I first saw a Bally widebody. It was like addressing a dining room table. I couldn't believe the size of it. I knew I just had to have one, so got a paragon and loved it. I had system 11 and dmd games next to it and all I played was paragon for months. Getting those inline drops and the 5x multiplier was so addictive. I'd still love a Flash Gordon. Ive had one lined up for a couple of years but I just don't have space at the moment
 
Nothing ever produced can touch the artistic beauty of these late 70s early 80s Ballys

Yes there are better games. There are deeper games. But some crappy nineties, noughties and whatever the hell the current games are called cannot touch these old Ballys in terms of beauty. IMG_20150425_174520.jpg
 
Andrew Stockdale said:
Amazing machines. I own 3. They are works of art.
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Yes they are, especially the backglasses that have some stunning artwork, great lighting effects or indeed often both. A photographic translight with a flourescent tube behind it? Pah! :p

I have to say though it's the Squawk and Talk in many of these that did it for me. In 1981 if you had a home computer it was probably a ZX81 with no sound at all (and it was only a few years since pinballs were still made with chime boxes) but these games TALKED to you! :)

Andrew Stockdale said:
Would love an Embryon and Eight Ball Deluxe.
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Me too..... :rolleyes:
 
DRD said:
nineties, noughties and whatever the hell the current games are called ....
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teenies?

I find this era of games beautiful to look at and listen to, but as Lecter said, we begin by coveting what we see every day, and I came late to this particular party. Post more pictures guys. Especially backglasses. And soundclips too.
 
In the arcades of the early and mid 80s the sound of Centaur was prevalent and often the first thing you could clearly make out above the general drone of white noise

The squawk and talk mated with the say it again board. If someone can post it, it is worth a sound clip on here.

Truly iconic
 
Ron you are so money supermarket , those three look epic, the cpr playfield on flash just sets that whole game off, compared to more tired ones like mine.
 
DRD said:
In the arcades of the early and mid 80s the sound of Centaur was prevalent and often the first thing you could clearly make out above the general drone of white noise

The squawk and talk mated with the say it again board. If someone can post it, it is worth a sound clip on here.

Truly iconic
Click to expand...
Centaur was the first pinball machine I remember paying any attention to as a kid. Was tucked in the corner of our local arcade. I was about 12 and found it genuinely quite creepy, the whole vibe of it so menacing. That and the scary big kids that hung around playing it.... smoking and swearing :-)
 
This video captures Centaur sound very well. If you haven't heard an actual machine, you are missing out on a defining pinball moment.

 
The greatest era for pinball bar none. I've now owned pretty much every pin I've ever wanted to own, other than a few from this age. I'd love a Frontier and a Skateball.

For me, it's of course the art, but it's also the flippers. The amount of control you get with a Bally flipper of this era in comparison to a Williams game. And also the inline drops are as addictive as crack
 
Nedreud said:
Top Bally's on my want list are:

MR & MRS PAC-MAN
CENTAUR II (has to be a 2 because the kooky cabinet matches M&MPM)
EIGHT BALL DELUXE LIMITED EDITION (again same weird cabinet as M&MPM and C2)
Click to expand...

Those three don't have exactly similar cabinets; Pac-Man has a normal main cabinet, with the back boxes bolted on, one above the other. Centaur II and Eight Ball D/L apparently used up leftover cabinets from Bally's Hyperball clone, Rapid Fire*, which have the lower part of the backbox fixed to the cabinet, and overlapping the sides.

The Centaur II that I owned showed traces of the grey paintwork of Rapid Fire, inside the cabinet.
 
roadshow16 said:
The greatest era for pinball bar none. I've now owned pretty much every pin I've ever wanted to own, other than a few from this age. I'd love a Frontier and a Skateball.

For me, it's of course the art, but it's also the flippers. The amount of control you get with a Bally flipper of this era in comparison to a Williams game. And also the inline drops are as addictive as crack
Click to expand...

Completely agree with the accuracy and feel of these machines. I really like the Bally playboy game. I payed it for about an hour straight at one of the London meets. I know it's a really simple game but the fun is all in getting the ball under control and picking the shots. I feel there is less randomness to these games than say a modern stern.
 
steve brum said:
Bell Games did some nice conversions too!
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Indeed, Fantasy was their conversion of Centaur and I did think about having Eddie Mole's one a few years ago, but then decided the backglass might not suit a family environment.....

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@cooldan ? ;)
 

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Love this thread right up my street. Agree on centaur, fathom , Flash Gordon, do not forget Electra , medusa and spy hunter(!) still love my fathom owned it forever but thinking of selling it this year as it has been played so much we always turn another machine on....:hmm::thumbs:
 
new forest pinball said:
Love this thread right up my street. Agree on centaur, fathom , Flash Gordon, do not forget Electra , medusa and spy hunter(!) still love my fathom owned it forever but thinking of selling it this year as it has been played so much we always turn another machine on....:hmm::thumbs:
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Get ready for the dibs on the Fathom.
 
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