STAR*TECH Journal
The Player/ Pin Skills
By John 'Root' Pilarchik
Pennsauken, New Jersey
One of the first pinball games I remenber
playing when I was a kid was a game by
Gottlieb called WAOON WHEEL. At 5 cents a
ganie for a five-ball play and five games
for a quarter, the machine offered a Free
Ball and Special shot. Score settings were
ar~und 900 points for the 1st game, 1200
points for the 2nd and 1500 points for the
3rd game; times are a changing!
Back then a quarter was alot of noney and
it had to last a long way. In order to
keep playing the ganie with what little
skill I had, the best way to get in plenty
of play time was to simply cheat! Many an
ashtray, wooden blocks etc. , were used to
raise the front legs up to a point where
the ball could get stuck and rack up
unlimited points. out of all the ways to
cheat, the best way was to drill a small
hole in the side near the flippers (no
metal back then) and using a small wire
you could rack up many games. Not rruch
satisfaction in this method, but it was a
great inexpensive way to learn how to play
th~ game and eventually learn to depend on
skill to beat the machine.
Today's games have come a long way since
then. However, the basic method and shots
to go for are nore or less the same.
Todays games have plenty of lights, sound
effects and fancy playing fields
(sometimes too crowded for my liking), but
the one nia.jor complaint I have is that I
come across many machines with weak or
poor rubber around the flippers.
Why doesn't someone develop a flipper that
holds up better without the player always
complaining to whomever to get them fixed
so often?
Good flippers with fast powerful action is
the firs~ key to a good machine; a
~hallenging playing field with good action
is second and a fair score setting (more
than one game on points is getting hard to
find) is third.
As a player, I am glad to see a wide range
of mac~ines which gives the player a good
selection to choose from. As long as the
November 1986
(12]
game has the three key elements stated
above, there's always the chance that you
might find another EIGID' BALL DELUXE
(Bally) on your hands, which this player
feels is the best machine I have played to
date.
I am always out there looking,
so keep up the good work!
Play on. . . Root.
Bally Midway GALAGA GG-4 Prom
By Sam Cross
Godwin Distributing Co.
North Little Rock, Arkansas
Yes, Bally's GN....AGA is an old game, but
there a_re still many of than out there,
and there has been a disturbing number of
boards that I have had the GG-4 Pran on
the Video Board go out!
'Ihe symptom that nost of the boards
display is in the video part, the main
part not being affected. 'Ihese problem
boards were not displaying some of the
lettering that is all of the same color,
such as the players initials and scores,
the challenging stage statistics, and even
some of the characters, like the bug who
cones down to get the player's ship.
If you have a board that displays some of
these problems, you might be somewhat at
ai:i advantage as to where to look; the GG-4
Video Board Prom.
One System . .. Every Video Game!
EASY and FAST . .. NO MORE CONVERSIONS
A Unplug old game board then plug in new
fl If Necessary
1 Snap out o ld control pcnel then snap in new
:; slide out monitor and rotate
1 Push switch to invert and fl ip monitor
C SMILF - It was easv and took only five minutes
We manufacture uprights. cocktails, ,:;ockpits, & countertop units.
THE ANSWER VIDEO GAME SYSTEM
Carrv game boards ,n vour car instead of a truck full of cabinets
GAME OPERATORS CORP.
1617 Wes t Harrv. Wichita. KS67213- 316-267-7371