Star Wars would have been out for a whole year by the time this came around. I like the art and the colors. It is really a shame it had so much wasted play space. It is a GIANT table.
Arty of the channel Artifact Electronics spoke at length about several of these games which he had to repair. They are rather weird in that they use a DMA state machine to reduce the amount of latches used to handle all of the signals going in and out of the main CPU. Because of this they were widely panned due to the difficulty of troubleshooting such circuitry. Add to that the fact that the PCBs were always mounted in the bottom of the cabinet, right underneath the playfield under a big plastic sheet which had to be removed every time it needed service. Operators often left this protective sheet out, allowing debris from the playfield to fall on top of the PCB...and you know what happens next...
I'm actually a big fan of Atari pinball machines. I remember when these wide bodies came out. They were really different, and got a lot of play. However... This machine leaves much to be desired. It has a terrible design. So much wasted space, so little to get excited about. Except for the drop targets to the left... there's nothing to shoot at. The entire upper half is like a no-man's land, where the ball doesn't spend much time. There's very little action in the upper half as it only has TWO pop-bumpers! The flippers, unbelievably, are uneven, with the lower set being off-center. Instant drain on the left. For such a huge playfield, it's just a lot of empty space. If you're not gonna put LED score keeping where it should be... what's the purpose of the backglass? No one wants to stare at a painting that doesn't even have the least amount of blinking action, or anything. And speaking of blinking action... it appears to be missing from the playfield as well. Seems like they were more worried about the overdone artwork. Considering the competition in 1978, as well as their other machines... when pinball machines were REALLY getting interesting... I don't know how this machine got past the design stage.
Star Wars would have been out for a whole year by the time this came around. I like the art and the colors. It is really a shame it had so much wasted play space. It is a GIANT table.
Arty of the channel Artifact Electronics spoke at length about several of these games which he had to repair. They are rather weird in that they use a DMA state machine to reduce the amount of latches used to handle all of the signals going in and out of the main CPU. Because of this they were widely panned due to the difficulty of troubleshooting such circuitry. Add to that the fact that the PCBs were always mounted in the bottom of the cabinet, right underneath the playfield under a big plastic sheet which had to be removed every time it needed service. Operators often left this protective sheet out, allowing debris from the playfield to fall on top of the PCB...and you know what happens next...
I'm actually a big fan of Atari pinball machines. I remember when these wide bodies came out. They were really different, and got a lot of play.
However... This machine leaves much to be desired. It has a terrible design. So much wasted space, so little to get excited about. Except for the drop targets to the left... there's nothing to shoot at. The entire upper half is like a no-man's land, where the ball doesn't spend much time. There's very little action in the upper half as it only has TWO pop-bumpers! The flippers, unbelievably, are uneven, with the lower set being off-center. Instant drain on the left. For such a huge playfield, it's just a lot of empty space. If you're not gonna put LED score keeping where it should be... what's the purpose of the backglass? No one wants to stare at a painting that doesn't even have the least amount of blinking action, or anything. And speaking of blinking action... it appears to be missing from the playfield as well. Seems like they were more worried about the overdone artwork. Considering the competition in 1978, as well as their other machines... when pinball machines were REALLY getting interesting... I don't know how this machine got past the design stage.
Has a nice look to it but looks so boring to play