Silver Ball Century ep. 35 - Early 1981 - Beat the Black Knight
If you enjoyed the pinball experience of 1980, I think you're going to enjoy its sequel: 1981. We see a continuation of the design ideas and aesthetics of 1980, with the noticeable difference that several companies are now trying to make the next Black Knight, the late 1980 machine that sold over 13,000 units. You can see the influence in Bally's Flash Gordon, Stern's Lightning, and Williams' Jungle Lord in this episode alone.
And it's a lovely coincidence that the first episode of September (in real time) is the one that includes Zaccaria's Earth Wind Fire (released in April 1981).
This episode of Silver Ball Century is live Thursday, September 4, at 8pm Eastern, on twitch.tv/arborelia.
Tables in this episode
As usual, you need Visual Pinball 10.8 to play these, and free accounts on VPForums and VPUniverse to download them.
- Freefall (Stern) - VPX by JPSalas
- Flash Gordon (Bally) - VPX by Rothbauerw
- Force II (Gottlieb) - VPX by Rascal
- Jungle Lord (Williams) - VPX by UnclePaulie
- Lightning (Stern) - VPX by JPSalas
- Pink Panther (Gottlieb) - VPX by Bord
- Eight Ball Deluxe (Bally) - VPX by Bord
- Earth Wind Fire (Zaccaria) - VPX by RetroRitchie