1981 Stern Freefall pinball machine
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- Опубликовано: 21 июл 2011
- Here's a gameplay demonstration of a 1981 Stern Freefall pinball machine.
This game was designed by the late, great Harry Williams for Stern as the company struggled to stay afloat amid diminishing pinball sales and fierce competition with video arcade machines.
This is a widebody game and features multiball, speech, some fairly decent rules and a "ramp" to a raised "playfield" where balls are locked prior to multiball. It's not a bad game, but there are some features that could have been better exploited and some rules that just don't quite measure up to the more notable Stern games from the period like Lightning, Cheetah and Star Gazer.
The spinner shot is pretty good and a well adjusted spinner can spin forever (fast forward to 1:49 of the video for an example). The kicker to the upper ramp is also a neat feature, but I wish there was a way to shoot for it (or at least a reliable bank shot) rather than just relying on luck to get the ball in there. The speech, of course, simply oozes cool and the start of multiball is climactic enough to be worth the effort.
The backglass is nice too look at and the rest of the art package is pretty good also. The sounds are on par with most other 1980/1981 Sterns, but I find them to be a tad repetitive on this game and not as "cool" as the sounds on several games that came before it, like, say, Quicksilver or Star Gazer.
At any rate, a decent effort by Stern that falls a little short of measuring up to some of their better-known classics.
Sorry for the extra-long video. It starts out slow but gets better as it goes on. Take note of the multiball that starts around the 7-minute mark and results in all 3 balls resting in the kicker -- never seen that before. It turned out to be an epic game and I actually beat my previous high score.
More info on Freefall can be found here: ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=953
Enjoy! 
Развлечения
I own one of these - Great pinball! My kids enjoy playing it. I had to replace the rectifier board a few years back, and it takes constant work to keep all the lights working (jiggle the bulbs in sockets typically cures the issue for a while).
That is a really cool game! Looks fun.
Man, it's been like 35 years since I've seen this game in person, and I remember the layout like it was yesterday. It was a fun pin! The only thing lacking was the playfield art.
Que hermosa pinbal tienes, me recuerda al pinball flght 2000 y al Quik silver , el mismo sonido del pinball Galaxy, Big game , the marc Stern hiso pinbal muy bonitas y con hermosos sanados, en mi casa tuve , varios pinball solo como amante de las pinbal, las que fueron, Paragon. Gloobe trothers, FLASH WILLIAMS. don de estas, 2 tome war, Spiderman magazinedeDgotlyeb, totem , Scorpion, Silverball mania, Stryker and spare, Lettal weapon 3º , Sexon, dos Fire power , meteor, Star trek 25 anivesary, y Mars god of ward. nunca obtuve el pinball Freefalls, es una maquina hermosa. Saludos amigo desde Chile Luis.
You played that superbly! I used to love playing this machine. (And I could make a quarter go pretty far on it!)
And DON'T apologize, you've succeeded in bringing back many a fun memory. Keep up the good work! :)
Never seen this one, what a cool game.
0:52 Sky!
3:29 All skydivers ready for free fall
Great job Corey. I really appreciate the hard work. Paul
Nice game there. Good gameflow too. I'd love to give it a shot.
This is one of the greatest of all time...I will find one.
Nice Moves ! On This One ! Great Saves !
2:02 Divers
Das waren noch Zeiten.
unusual game - good reflexes
Interesting game, I never liked the change matrix lane with double flipper hit myself, makes it too easy to complete the matrix. Mine left last May to make room for more games ;)
GRANDE !!!
Great video of a great machine. I own one myself (a rescue that I restored from a pretty bad state) but I find my machine to be somewhat slower on the flippers and bumpers. Did you make any improvements on this one to make it faster? Or maybe I should be looking at an issue in my machine? Could you tell me what angle you have the playfield on? Most people recommend 6,5° but when I adjust mine to 6,5° it seems to miss some punch from the flippers and it's just not a lot of fun to play.
Love it, don't suppose you know anyone that works specifically on these Freefall Machines? My father's recently stopped working but we believe it to be a short somewhere. SUCH A GREAT GAME!
Will where are you located?
The twin cities of Minnesota
Will if you post on the forum at pinside.com, you'll be able to find someone who can help you.
Much appreciated!!
Great game... never saw this one before... it seems to be a hybrid of Flight 2000 pinball... do you know if this came before or after Flight 2000?
This came after Flight 2000.
Do you have a games room open to the public? I'm in Milton.
@@macintosh3990 No. But you should check out Maple Pinball in Mississauga. They hold weekly tournaments that are open to the public.
Thanks! I'll check them out.
6:57 - Well, that multiball didn't last long... At least none of the balls went to outhole.
I played this game at an ice cream parlor in the mid 1980s. I really liked the game, but I didn't like the talking on the game for some reaosn.
name one difficult pinball paragon or hercules
4:01 did the machine just say the F word?
"Forty Thousand Altitude"
Lots of praise for this machine in the comments. In my opinion, it looks like a horrible layout for a widebody and a massive waste of available real estate. When you look at Flight 2000, Cheetah, Iron Maiden, Viper, Big Game, etc. It's obvious how much more could have been done with this title being a widebody. A bit underwhelming to me.