Silver Ball Century ep. 49 - Early 1987 - Party Hard
We ended up with one of those thematic confluences again. Bally's Party Animal came out just a month after Gottlieb's Spring Break, which also refers to the player as a "party animal". They even have similar-sounding music.
"Spring Break" was not a very well-designed machine and did not have much influence, as far as I can tell, while "Party Animal" went on to be the start of Dennis Nordman's "party trilogy".
But don't let the revelry distract you from the historical moment: Data East Pinball is making their debut with Laser War, a delightful machine that starts the delightful tradition of playing its theme song at the end:
Return to base, return to base
You're fight'n a laser war
Data East is particularly relevant because they're the only one of these manufacturers that is still around and making pinball machines today. They became Stern Pinball, the current market leader.
Another first: Williams' F-14 Tomcat has, in certain situations, ball save that isn't just playfield validation! It needs it.
Silver Ball Century is live at 8 PM on Thursday, February 12, on twitch.tv/arborelia.
Tables in this episode
- City Slicker (Bally Midway) - VPX by mistermixer
- F-14 Tomcat (Williams) - VPX by VPin Workshop
- Hardbody (Bally Midway) - VPX by Armyaviation
- Spooky (Zaccaria) - played in the Zaccaria Pinball app
- Spring Break (Gottlieb) - VPX by hmueck
- Party Animal (Bally Midway) - VPX by Armyaviation
- Laser War (Data East) - VPX by UnclePaulie