by pinballmania_llcIn the summer of '77, there were over 30 tables in the Just Fun arcade, at the Mt. Farms Mall in Hadley, MA. These tables were dominated by Gottlieb with a close 2nd place by Bally. There was Fast Draw, Super Soccer, Spirit of '76 and Royal Flush from Gottlieb, among others. And Aladdin's Castle, Flicker, Capt. Fantastic and Old Chicago represented some of Bally's tables. These were, in my opinion, some of the finest pinball machines around. And they delighted me to no end, especially since this was the summer that I'd first started playing pinball.
But late that summer, on a hot mid-August day, I was delighted to see that a new arrival had come to the game room, Eight Ball, by Bally.
The first obvious thing about Eight Ball was that, instead of the usual dings and clangs of most pinball bells, this table featured the unique tinkling sound of the new Bally Chimes, this being the first of Bally's new SS tables at our local arcade. It seemed to be "rather tinny" to me, and I wasn't sure I was going to like it ... at first. But as I got to know the game a bit better, the new sound began to wear on me and very quickly became the table's most defining characteristic in my book.
The next thing that was obvious to me was the coolness of the gameplay. Anyone who'd ever played pool before would see what the objective was here: to hit all the targets and lanes that represented the solid-colors of the pool balls, which were neatly racked up in the center of the playfield, and then hit the eight ball, which was part of the tricky skill shot on the right. Eight ball would usually be better playing 2-player with a friend so that the stripe-colored pool balls would also light up as the game went on. Sometimes I'd just play two players at once, just to light 'em all up.
The left outlane was a real problem sometimes. As I was still learning how to play pinball back then, the ball would start bouncing side to side on the slingshots. Before I could do anything about it, the ball would go down the outlane without mercy. Great gladness if the kicker was active and saved the ball. Great sadness if it wasn't, and the ball drained!
Definitely a classic early SS table by Bally. And very nice to see in VP, especially
Scapino's VP8 version. He does the Bally Chimes right, just the way I remember it!
