Silver Ball Century ep. 45 - Late 1985 - It's About Time
December has been full of things, but it's about to be January and I'm back to Silver Ball Century! As the year turns to 2026, it will still be late 1985 in our chronology of pinball.
After Thursday's episode, I'm going to be switching to Tuesdays for a while. The next episode will begin a side series I call Video Mode. By 1985 we've seen at least a few attempts to recreate pinball on computers and home consoles, from Atari's Video Pinball to the NES launch game Pinball, and I'm going to try playing them!
Getting back to real pinball: "It's About Time" is the cheeky slogan of Bally's Beat the Clock, another attempt to make a pinball game that is time-based instead of a fixed number of balls, after James Bond 007 (Gottlieb, 1980) did it so disappointingly.
Game Plan made their two final tables in 1985, and they're pretty cool. Andromeda has the same drop target layout we've seen on Old Coney Island and Sharp Shooter, but now it's badass and multiball. Cyclopes is completely different, and is about as fixated on eyes as a classic Zelda game.
Silver Ball Century goes live on twitch.tv/arborelia on Thursday, January 1, 2026, at 8pm Eastern.
Tables in this episode
- Bounty Hunter (Premier Gottlieb) - VPX by Bord
- Eight Ball Champ (Bally Midway) - VPX by Goldchicco
- Mad Race (Playmatic) - VPX by JPSalas
- Andromeda (Game Plan) - VPX by JPSalas
- Tag-Team Pinball (Premier Gottlieb) - VPX by roccodimarco
- Rock (Premier Gottlieb) - VPX by JPSalas
- Cyclopes (Game Plan) - VPX by JPSalas
- Beat the Clock (Bally Midway) - VPX by VPin Workshop