Silver Ball Century ep. 54 - Late 1988 - The Merge
Bally and Williams had been rival pinball manufacturers for most of the history of pinball, and then in late 1988, they merged to become a pinball powerhouse. Bally/Williams will bring us a decade of iconic pinball games, but first they'll bring us Truck Stop.
The merge was quick. Truck Stop was made with a mix of Bally and Williams parts, such as the Bally MPU and the sound board from Williams System 11B. A sign next to the plunger lane commemorates "Williams Bally Merge". There's lots more lore about it that you can read on IPDB, including the surprising fact that its pinballs are 1/16 of an inch smaller than usual.
This episode also brings a Data East game that I love: Time Machine (Where You Go Back In Time). I appreciate so many things about the game, including its mostly unnecessary subtitle. The theming is fun, and the change in aesthetics when you start multiball shows how much they committed to the bit.
We tried to play Banzai Run last episode, but the VPX keeps breaking. This time, I'll be playing it in Pinball FX instead.
Silver Ball Century is live on Thursday, March 26, at 8pm Eastern, on twitch.tv/arborelia.
Tables in this episode
- Banzai Run (Williams) - played using Pinball FX
- Bad Girls (Premier Gottlieb) - VPX by Morttis
- Truck Stop (Bally/Williams) - VPX by Mecha Enron
- Excalibur (Premier Gottlieb) - VPX by Rascal
- Jokerz! (Bally/Williams) - VPX by VPin Workshop
- Time Machine (Data East) - VPX by RobbyKingPin