Topic: TILT!!!! The PINBALL Thread!

[mick750F]

   I played a lot of pinball all through the 70's and into the 80's. The one game that stands out to me above all others is Firepower. It revolutionized pinball at a time when video games were starting to take hold and probably helped save pinball for at least a few years.

   This is one guys rant about it...http://pinball.flippers.info/firepower.asp

Mike

[City Boy]

I havea Gottlieb machine called Challenger.I bought it at an auction years ago.It works great and is fairly unique.It has player positions at each end with a scoreboard elevated in the centre so each player can see the entire playing surface.The playing surface is pivotted in the centre.There is one ball and each player gets to score points with it 3 times per game and defends three times.The table is tilted up from you while you are scoring points ala the normal pinball way.Each player has two sets of flippers,one set in front of his "goal",and one set at mid field.The defender scores no points but tries to score to end the scorers play.When he does;the table pivots,and the defender now becomes the scorer.This occurs 3 times per game.The game has been a great addition to my rec room but was a flop commercially as less than 500 machines were produced.My guess is that the 2 player requirement did not fit with generally individuals playing in arcades.

[BulleyCafe]

Mick 759F---

Firepower was and still is a great game. A good buddy of mine got one in the early 90's, what an awesome fourplayer game. The sound effects and levels of play were awesome. I'll have to post some pics, we got a 70's Bally called Ro Go, takes on a whole Thor / Valhalla theme, all relays and bells, pre-digital counter pinball machines rock.

[mark]

There was an arcade not far from home where fancy new games like 'Toledo'.. 'Gin'.. 'Ro-Go'.. 'Skylab'.. and 'Old Chicago' would eat up my quarters. Sometimes, I would go to the little old burger stand across the street, have a nice cold 10oz. bottle of Coke, and play ten-year-old relics like 'Central Park', 'Bank-a-Ball', and 'Kings & Queens'.

I'd toss out the couch to make room for a 'Bank-a-Ball' and a 'Kings & Queens'.

[mark]

Wonders of modern technology....


One thing that I like about the older electromechanical games - when they act up, fixing them aint exactly brain surgery. For the newer stuff, the brain-wave monitor has arrived. I found a Radio Shack ProbeScope on feebay, downloaded the latest software, and set it up on this 486 thing that the neighbor threw out.

A real must-have... a good DMM:


This Fluke 8800A came home from a yard sale for $15



Aint science wunnerful?

[mark]

(borrowed from the Japauto thread)

.................. During Franco's reign, hardly any imports were allowed into spain, surely not from lowly Japan!! but something made in neighbouring France could be somehow let into the country.
TG

Exactly. During Franco's dictatorship, there was an international embargo and we had to make everything pretty much ourselves -I mean our parents-. In the last two decades or so, the rest of the World loosen up a bit, and so did Franco. Little by little imports were permitted, but depended from where. For example, the car that motorized the country was the Seat 600, a clone of the Fiat 500 and built under licence. The same happened with Ducati, NSU, MV Agusta and many other marques that were built in Spain under license...............

........... like Williams.

'Travel Time' - Segasa, 1973
I knew about games built under license in Europe but just assumed it was mostly about shipping(delicate bulky objects).
Never for a moment thought about the old Generalissimo.

That was my 'learn something new every day' a couple days ago.


Happy trails.