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SS pinball hitting full throttle… every game released this year at least 10,000 production run! Skateball prototype built. The SS production machine is cranking ’em out like never before.ġ978 – Bally EM’s now totally gone except bingos (last big year for them). Meanwhile, TWO blockbusters this year… Evel Knievel 14,000 and Eight Ball setting a new all-time record with a massive 20,230 produced… which is why you always see so many on Craigslist! 7000 for Night Rider and nearly 5000 for Black Jack as well. “Kick Off” (prod 1655) used up the last of the EM parts. Also let’s not forget how much solid-state practice Bally was getting via the Fireball home edition – a stupendous 10,000 produced!ġ977 – Bally EM phase-out year! Only 155 Evel Knievel and 170 Mata Hari EM’s built. Black Jack was slated for solid-state production and thus the EM version only had 120 produced… a sign of things to come. Other games produced were Flip Flop, Old Chicago, Hokus Pokus, Aladdin’s Castle, Night Rider, Hang Glider, Captain Fantastic (another blockbuster… over 16k produced!), and Freedom which was also the first commercial SS produced in quantity. Bally’s excellent solid-state hardware platform is already primed for production.ġ976 – Bigfoot concept (2 produced), an obvious early ancestor of Atari Hercules.
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Bow & Arrow also produced this year in high quantity (over 7600). The coming bust of the arcade scene and then the rise and fall of the home video game market was just ahead, who in the hectic pace of pinball release of 1981 could have ever predicted this peak in production of new titles.ġ974 – First SS prototypes: Bow and Arrow (17) and Flicker (1) using the “Bally Brain” Intel 4004 – world’s first single-chip processor.ġ975 – Wizard! With over 10,000 produced, “Tommy” license, and huge backglass w/commercial-quality art… this was the blockbuster which announced to Gottlieb (and the rest of the pinball world) that Bally was, indeed, now taking over the industry. Some companies like Bally managed to switch over from electro-mechanical to solid-state machines and rise to the top while others like former industry leader Gottlieb were slow to make the transition and never truly recovered. The years ahead would see a lot of consolidation, demise, rebirth, innovations and mergers within the pinball. Other manufactures also contributed to the Pinball Class of 1981.