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Silver Ball Century ep. 56 - Late 1989 - Cat and Mouse

In this episode: Bone Busters Inc., Monday Night Football, Elvira and the Party Monsters, Bad Cats, Mousin' Around, Night Moves, and Robocop. Next episode: Video Mode episode 2.

With its "We have Heathcliff at home" theme and its silly sound effects, Bad Cats makes you want to love it. And then you learn that the strategy is to shoot nothing but the left ramp, and also you can be awarded a progressive jackpot from the mystery wheel, and welp, that's not a game you'll ever see in a tournament.

Except! You do see it in tournaments, because there is a fan-made mod to the ROM called The Cat's Meow. It makes it into a game that is still silly and arbitrary at times, but also balanced enough to compete on. We have a Bad Cats nearby at the Triangle Pinball Collective, and many people groan when they have to play it, but others seek it out. We are no strangers to competitive kuso games.

It's fun that Bad Cats came out just before Mousin' Around, its better-designed younger sibling with a "Mouse Trap" theme.

Bone Busters Inc. is also dancing around a theme they didn't license, and is also kuso. It is not fixable. I love it.

Dennis Nordman is still down to party, and so is his celebrity star: Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. Elvira and the Party Monsters is the pinball debut of this B-movie hostess and bisexual icon, who describes herself as "raised by a pack of wild drag queens", and who will bring us some of the most fun callouts in pinball across her three licensed machines. She's joined by voice actor Tim "Boomshakalaka" Kitzrow, who will also have an illustrious career in pinball and video games.

Night Moves is a cocktail pinball table, sold under the furniture brand International Concepts. The design and programming was contracted out to Premier, whose usual brand name was Gottlieb.

Silver Ball Century goes live at 8pm Eastern, on Thursday, April 16, on twitch.tv/arborelia.

Tables in this episode

#pinball #silver ball century