Have You Ever Seen This Pinball Table?

[Pintrepid]

How interesting ... I've inadvertently come across a pinball table that's "off the grid", that is, which does not have a listing in the ipdb.org. Yes, it does have the name "Akira" in the rules list on the apron ... but there's very little more info available anywhere on this.

The table reminds me a lot of the Gottlieb machines of the late 70's, a little like Joker Poker. The artwork also has that late-70's early SS Gottlieb style IMHO.

I see there are many references to "Akira Kiteshi" music. There's a rap song as well as another song made up of pinball game sounds. mostly from that overplayed Windows game "Space Cadet"; both these songs turn up when doing a YouTube search for "Akira Kiteshi".

But as for the machine itself ... it seems that it's little more than an apparition from the Twilight Zone, an arcade favorite from an alternate reality ... 

[Itchigo]

Interesting.... I need a project today at work..... Hate going to work w/o a project, feel like I'm wasting the day......

[rosve]

It looks like a re-themed Buck Rogers.
http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=392

[Pintrepid]

It looks like a re-themed Buck Rogers.
http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=392

Ha! So it is, Rosve! I never would have gotten that, the Akira art is so totally different than Buck Rogers.

It's so interesting how Gottlieb has frequently re-used their same table designs with different artwork. El Dorado is Target Alpha is Solar City. Card Whiz is Royal Flush. Pioneer is Spirit of '76. Super Soccer is Top Score. Jacks Open is Lucky Card.

It should be no surprise then that this Akira is just another re-theme of another Gottlieb design.

Thanks ... this one would have had me guessing awhile.

[Pintrepid]

Here are the two tables together for comparison.

[yogiholzer]

http://droptargetzine.blogspot.de/2011/07/custom-re-themed-pinball-machines.html

[Shooby Doo]

That looks amazing. I'm not a huge anime fan, but I love Akira. It works great as a pinball theme. I found this on pinside:



Apparently it was done for a cover of the 4th volume of Akira mangas in Japan... so perhaps the table doesn't really exist?

I also came across this game for the PS2. I never knew it existed:

[Itchigo]

I've never seen this before. I was aware of Buck Rodgers in the day, but I haven't seen this one.

[sleepy]

I have a couple of table memories that I cannot account for.

One was a vertical cab pinball (looked like a video game) that used a smaller playfield that you viewed through a vertically mounted diagonal mirror at the back of the cab in order to give the visual ball a feeling of weightlessness because the game was a space theme involving Rockets. It had a candy cane-shaped left alcove lane that spelled ROCKET.
This machine used two upright handles with the flipper buttons mounted in the place of what would be the triggers on a fighter jet joystick. Almost like a Atari Battlezone, though the cab was normal video game size.
Never found this one at ipdb, though I played it in the early 1980's.
And No. It is not the Bally game.

And there was a conventional pinball with *I think* a big city-theme that is almost forgotten here, but one of the shots went *I think* between a trio of white posts to hit a star rollover Trigger button, or maybe an Eject Hole (why does VP call these "Kickers"??). This was in the upper left corner, or near it. On a light blue playfield, illustrator designed artwork with illustrated yellow street lights depicted in the "painted" artwork.
Not Real Lights like pinball lights.
I am thinking that this was either also a re-themed machine that was released commercially, or was a product of another country.
This was at a bowling alley in Los Angeles that also had Zaccaria Soccer Kings for a time, very rare one-of-a-kind machines for this part of the U.S., and it was The Only Place that I ever saw Soccer Kings in my entire life.

[Pintrepid]

Hmmmmm ... that Rocket-themed game sounds really cool. But I don't remember seeing anything like it.

I found this at Stern Pinball's Blogs ... thought this might be interesting. But this ins't the game that you were referring to.



There were a great many games back in the day, too many to mention. But I think I'd remember a game like you described, especially from the early '80's.

As for the city-themed table, sorry, it's hard to know which city-themed table you are thinking of. Are you seeing any images in your search? If you have anything at all, you could post and say, "it looks something like this". That might cause someone else to have an "AHA!" Moment and know which exact machine you are talking about!  8)

A couple things that might steer you in the right direction ... maybe ...

Go to International Arcade Museum online and have a look around. Note: there are many games listed here that have very little information with it .. but it might be useful for helping you to refine your search a little. Every now and then, you might even run into a long-forgotten game from back in the day and have a great rush of memories come over you like a flood!

Also, use Google with some creatively worded searches, like "city themed pinball" or "R O C K E T pinball" (will show "rocket pinball" results, as well as results that talk about "scoring R O C K E T" that might lead to the machine you're thinking of. And when you have a set of search results, try switching to "Images" and see what pops up. It may help you refine your search, if it doesn't find your actual table. But a word of caution when searching by images ... it's VERY easy to get totally distracted by something else and you might forget what you were searching for~  ;D

For pinball posts, every bit of info is helpful to find what you are looking for. But try to be as specific as possible to help narrow things down. For instance, Gottlieb made MANY tables, much of which are in the 50s and 60s, and many of those with rocket and/or city themes. It would help if you could remember if it was an older table like that, or if it was a later model EM table or an early SS table from the late 70s or early 80s, or a "modern" super-ultra-mega-flashy-rampy table from the late 80's onward. The more specific, the easier it may be to help you find what you are looking for.

[Itchigo]

Interesting. Maybe Goerge Gomez is looking at my designs? Open playfield, for the most part.

[sleepy]

Definitely Pintrepid, I've been all around the block with Google.
The city machine was early-mid 80's, while the ROCKET rarity was late 70's-early 80's. I thought it was an Allied Leisure or a Gameplan(?) or someone similar, small outfit, that had tried something similar. Can't remember it since I never saw that one in real life,
though there is a pinball game like it (video-style cab with fighter pilot flipper handles) that is listed at IPDB.
Bally also tried a design like that, but the game I played was definitely not the
Bally game.

So it could be that the ROCKET game was re-themed also.

And the fighter pilot grips/joysticks also provided built-in nudging by moving the grips. There was an electro-mechanical set of nudgers attached to the playfield and wired to the sticks.

[Pintrepid]

Wow ... I'd sure love to see that Rocket game! That sounds very cool!

I'll also be browsing around the web for that City Pin ... I hate that when I got a memory in my mind, but I can't for the life of me match it up with anything!  ::)

There are some really cool tables that Allied Leisure made. That Star Shooter table looks very interesting! Looks like something I would want to recreate in VP if I had the time!

[sleepy]

Yeah, I always hesitate in mentioning an unknown game because I don't mean to disturb.

But now I'll have to find that one similar game that I did see posted at ipdb.
Maybe it was a re-themed machine?

[sleepy]

Yeah, it was likely an Allied Leisure ShakerBall game, circa 1972 or thereabouts.
There are only two ShakerBall games listed at IPDB; "Sea Hunt" and "Spooksville", neither of which serves my memories.

But it *might have been* that I played "Sea Hunt" and imagined how ShakerBall played through the mirror would do as a space-theme. Improving or inventing new games was a frequent habit of mine back then, and then my dear relations with connections to the industry (black sheep) would take it and do it behind my back, so...either I have a vivid memory of playing a space-themed ShakerBall game, else it was A Damned Good Idea at the time.

I found Ron Halliburton, the designer of Allied Leisure ShakerBall games, and e-mailed him asking about Rockets, so hopefully I will find out for sure.

This is Sea Hunt:

http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=2081&picno=32959

This is Spooksville:

http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=2298&picno=32389