Silver Ball Century ep. 52 - Early 1988 - Escape from the Playfield
There's a fun trend I've noticed in 1988 pinball machines: designs that involve getting the ball outside what you'd usually think of as the "playfield".
We see this first in Bally's Escape from the Lost World, where a goal of the game is to shoot the ball up a ramp to the raised left side of the playfield, then use a flipper there to shoot it across a bridge to the right side of the playfield, where there's another flipper that can flip it into what appears to be a door in the back of the machine. The game dares you with the callout "CAN. YOU. ESCAPE?" and it's so satisfying when you do.
Bally's next game, Blackwater 100, departs from the playfield in the opposite direction: there's a flipper at the bottom that you can use to flip the ball across the apron.
Williams will not be outdone: next episode's Banzai Run takes the pinball to an even more unconventional place.
Silver Ball Century is live at 8:30pm Eastern tonight (Tuesday, March 3), on twitch.tv/arborelia.
Tables in this episode
- Space Station (Williams) - VPX by VPin Workshop. I held this one over from episode 50, where I didn't get it running, but I've figured it out.
- Escape from the Lost World (Bally Midway) - VPX by RajoJoey
- Diamond Lady (Gottlieb) - VPX by JPSalas
- Cyclone (Williams) - VPX by RobbyKingPin
- Blackwater 100 (Bally Midway) - VPX by MrJ
- Secret Service (Data East) - VPX by DCrosby