Fireball (pinball)
Fireball is a historically notable pinball machine designed by Ted Zale and released by Bally in 1972. The table was one of the first to have a modern sci-fi/fantasy type of outer-space theme and featured elaborate artwork, on the sides of the table, painted by Dave Christensen.
Description
The game itself is notable as it featured several pinball innovations, including a spinning disc in the centre of the playfield which spins continuously throughout a game, moveable "zipper" flippers, and trapped ball bonuses. The zipper flippers move to their inner position if the blue mushroom bumper is hit, or to the outer position if a yellow mushroom bumper is hit; when in the inner position the gap between the flippers is smaller than the ball. It also includes the "messenger ball", this is a ball trapped in a channel that can be hit with the ball in play to try and get it to hit the target behind it.Fireball was also an early table to have the multi-ball feature. This was started by locking a ball in each of the games saucers, Odin and Wotan, and the hitting a target with the messenger ball.
Fireballs playfield and backglass featured elaborate artwork of a flaming "fire man", flames, and stars in space.
Cultural references
Chip Carter bought one of these machines in 1977 while his father, Jimmy Carter, was president; it was inspected by the secret service on delivery.Richard Linklater owned a Fireball, and it appears in two of his films. In his 2001 film Waking Life he plays a rotoscoped Fireball in the penultimate scene where he expounds Dickian gnosticism to the protagonist. Also, Linkater's 1993 film Dazed and Confused features a scene that shows extreme close-ups of a game being played on a Fireball.
During the episode "Pinball" of the television series Mr. Belvedere, the title character becomes obsessed with a "Firebomb" pinball machine, a slightly altered Fireball.
Digital versions
The table was included in the arcade game cabinet UltraPin in 2006.Fireball was a licensed table of The Pinball Arcade, but was removed from sale on June 30, 2018 due to the loss of the Williams license.
Sequels
Fireball Professional Home model
Partly due to the success of the original Fireball pinball machine, Bally released a "Professional Home Model" available to the regular consumer beginning in 1976. The layout was different from the arcade Fireball; it was a slight modification of the Bally's Hocus Pocus playfield with the subtraction of a ball diverter gate. Sears sold it for $645.Fireball II
In June 1981, Bally released Fireball II which used similar style of artwork, also by Dave Christensen, but with a playfield layout unrelated to the original. It included the "little demon post", a post between the flippers that could be raised a limited number of times by the player using an additional button next to the right flipper button. In the centre of the playfield is a captive ball similar to that used on an earlier game, Doodle Bug.In a review for Play Meter, Roger Sharpe found it to be an average game, rating it at 2/4.