Misplaced Pages

Fireball (pinball)

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
1972 pinball machine
This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages)
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Fireball" pinball – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
The topic of this article may not meet Misplaced Pages's notability guidelines for products and services. Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted.
Find sources: "Fireball" pinball – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
(Learn how and when to remove this message)

Fireball
ManufacturerBally
Release dateFebruary, 1972
DesignTed Zale
ArtworkDave Christensen
Production run3,815

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, painted 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, moveable "zipper" flippers, and trapped ball bonuses. Fireball was also an early table to have the multi-ball (three balls, in this case) feature. Fireball's main surface and raised surface also featured elaborate artwork of a flaming "fire man", flames, and stars in space.

The pinball table is lit up and operational, with backglass art of a humanoid being throwing fireballs towards the viewer.
Fireball on display at the Silverball Museum in Asbury Park, NJ

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 1978. 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.

Fireball Classic

In February 1985, Bally released Fireball Classic. While the field closely resembled the original this version was electronic and had no zipper-flippers.

Cultural references

Richard Linklater plays a rotoscoped Fireball in his 2001 film Waking Life, 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" (Original air date: November 29, 1985) of the television series Mr. Belvedere, the title character becomes obsessed with a "Firebomb" pinball machine, a slightly altered Fireball.

Digital version

Fireball is a licensed table of The Pinball Arcade and comes with El Dorado (1975) as a single DLC.

References

  1. "1978 Bally Fireball--Professional Home Model".
  2. Michael Shalhoub (2005). The Pinball Compendium. Schiffer. p. 55. ISBN 978-0-7643-4107-6.

External links

  • Fireball at the Internet Pinball Database


Stub icon

This pinball article is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

Categories: