Bally

Embryon

Pinside Rating

This game received 108 approved Pinsider ratings and currently rates 7.563 _/10

7.563

Top 100 ranking

This game ranks #182 in the Pinside Pinball Top 100.

Score breakdown

Score breakdown in the 4 main categories:

Game Design: 7.602

Artwork: 8.095

Sounds/Music: 6.007

Other Aspects: 7.63

Pinside staff rating

This is how we, the very knowledgeable (wink wink) Pinside.com staff & moderators rate this game. 4 of us have rated this game.

6.844

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Found 57 ratings (with comment) on this game

There are 57 ratings (that include a comment) on this game.
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8.078/10

3 months ago

???

HAL9OOO

Pinside member

Spokane, WA

2y 24,400 8 6

This is second to Paragon for me in the Bally wide bodies. Fun game with a lot going on around the playfield. Lacks the inline targets but has multiple drop target and plenty of captured balls to shoot for and a two ball multi ball.
Not too difficult for beginners. Sounds and speech fit the theme well.

7.293/10

11 months ago

MFA

Mishap

Pinside member

Seattle, WA

2y 27,300 19 6 33

While very similar to the layout of the execrable Space Invaders, Embryon improves upon the game play in every way. The upper playfield is fun and shoots well, the table is less crowded with unusable space. The left and right lanes both have features that are debatable in their utility, but add to the strategy. Still wastes a decent amount of space in its enormous widebody design, but worth a flip.

Pros: A few good shots, upper playfield plays well, more controllable than most of those huge widebodies.

Cons: The middle feature is clumsy, play can be repetitive, risk/reward seems inverted in scoring

7.815/10

12 months ago

DIA

mrossman5

Pinside+ Frequent

Warren, PA

6y 197K 3,179 7 253

Theme is super odd but I believe this is the best Bally widebody machine. Unique, fun layout with a tough multiball.

mrossman5 has this game on the wishlist.

8.586/10

1 year ago

JFB

Awfulplatypus

Pinside member

13y 47,650 5 29 12

Being a wide body it tends to be slower then them "thin"pins but as crion is never boring on Embryon, to me it sums up my youth the as t sound ,..ah! and it is quite a challenging pin for what it is....of course no bells and whistles like the new machine of today but for the era it was a pretty rad machine, I bought it because I like the was artwork of the BG, stayed for the game...I got a soft spot for 70 -80s pins...that one is right as t home.with me...

Awfulplatypus currently owns this game.

7.919/10

1 year ago

LON

Pinaddic

Inactive member

Queensbury, NY

1y 12,500 1 18

I am not normally a big fan of wide bodies but this is phenomenal. One of Bally's top 10 machines.

8.519/10

1 year ago

CAP

CaptNRetro

CaptNRetro’s Pinball Co

Snellville, GA

6y 36,650 44 5 23

The often overlooked cousin of Paragon is maybe my favorite widebody, the layout, the multiball that takes a good bit of skill to acquire and the unlockable flip save flipper make this game standout. Along with the weird vagina brain in the dead center… I love the weird sci-fi theme and the Challenge of trying to spell Embryon and lighting both in lanes is fun and satisfying.. play it if ya see it, buy it if ya can

CaptNRetro has owned this game in the past.

7.762/10

2 years ago

MRA

Lablaw

Pinside member

South Hadley, MA

5y 30,650 2 2 20

I love this play field! Makes me want to play it over and over again, even though it is not a fast machine.

7.946/10

3 years ago

PO

pat4race

Inactive member

Unknown

3y 19,000 1 73

Beautiful artwork, great theme, lots of different areas on the wide body playfield to focus on, but the machine I played seemed prone to a lot of “no fault” drains.

pat4race edited previous rating on April 17, 2021.

7.440/10

3 years ago

TKM

Daditude

Pinside Moderator

Rockwall, TX

5y 266K 10,120 23 271

Embryon is just a gorgeous game to look at. The backglass, cab, and PF are all superb. The lighting is also incredible. It has that early 80s charm and the "one more time" feel to it.

Daditude edited previous rating on September 18, 2020.

8.816/10

3 years ago

NWR

paulbaptiste

Pinside+ Frequent

Danville, IL

4y 128K 2,193 15 17 1

My favorite Bally widebody. There is just so much to do on this playfield. You can spend time just banging out letters for embryon or focus on the top right or left of the playfield. This gives you safer options to earn points and extend playtime. I love the artwork and theme. My only complaint is how dark the playfield is. I don't know why the pop bumpers and other parts of the field aren't always lit up to show off the beautiful artwork. It seems wasteful to have the lights only kick in during parts of gameplay.

I enjoy the difficulty (for me) of obtaining multi-ball but wish there was a greater incentive to go after it. Due to the widebody and layout of the playfield you can have 2 balls completely separated for quite awhile. I just wish the scoring was effected by the multiball. Absolutely love this game.

paulbaptiste has owned this game in the past.

8.536/10

4 years ago

REW

woody76

Pinball Marketing

Nashville, TN

9y 142K 6,845 6 98

Just fun pinball here, art is amazing and tons to shots, objective is simple to understand but hard to accomplish

woody76 edited previous rating on June 15, 2019.
woody76 has owned this game in the past.

9.076/10

5 years ago

DSP

hogzillaman

Pinside member

5y 26,650 9 5 7

The only game I ever really played as a kid. I'm not a big pinball guy, but I had to have this one in my home. So ya, I am bias.
UPDATE:
After owning this game for more than a year, I have to say I really enjoy going back to it from my other games. Ya, its a slow wide-body, but each time I return after not playing for a while, I find myself trying to determine a better scoring strategy. There are at least a few ways to put points up, but it seems the most consistent and safe is the upper left field to gain multipliers and possibly free ball. the upper right field with 3rd flipper can score bonuses and extra ball but not a lot of point generation. Targeting the lower left and right trapped balls and associated drop targets can put up points with the lower of the three left targets sometimes being a bit of a challenge. These are a tough way to generate points. And of course, the center captive ball is possibly the easiest, but also a high risk of drain. I freaking love it when I get a perfect dual-ball hit which sets off the lightning-ish flash and 'thunder' sounds. Again, the rebound from this shot has a high % of draining nad thus a bit riskier. this slower machine is a bit more relaxing as well, but maybe that's just age (ugh). My only wish is that there was more than 2 multi-balls. All the steps to get this to trigger can be a bit challenging, requiring first that you hit the center capture ball numerous times, then a skill shot to trap the ball (I'm pretty good at this one now), drop target hit, and again hitting the trapped ball behind that same drop target. It its a bit anticlimactic and I usually drain one of the balls not long after. I still have a strong bias to this game. It was the first and will be the last in my collection.

hogzillaman edited previous rating on October 25, 2021.
hogzillaman has this game on the wishlist.

8.591/10

5 years ago

JON

classicgamefan

Pinside member

11y 63,150 206 49

I don’t care what anyone says about the theme, this backglass is beautiful! Is the art weird? Sure, but they went all in unapologetically and this is not a cookie cutter game, neither in graphics nor playfield layout. I love the “backwards” far left return lane and the near left out lane. It was such a great feature they repeated it on both sides just a few months later with Fathom. You want captive balls? How about three captive ball shots, two of which are protected by drop targets. The center captive ball is intentionally dangerous and Newtons either or both of the additional two balls behind it (that means there is really a total of 5 captive balls). Getting both on the same shot triggers flashers, an unusual feature for this era. Upper flipper? Check. Funky timed right outlane FlipSave flipper? Check. A spinner that begs to be lit and ripped? Check again.

A criticism of this game is that it devolves into light the spinner / rip the spinner in tournament/competitive play. The fact that the spinner feeds the top lanes which is the most common of three ways to light the multipliers, makes this an even more attractive strategy. However, at least on my machine, there is a significant left outlane drain risk coming out of the pops below the top lanes which somewhat offsets this approach. Other strategies are valid and I’ve managed to roll the game just concentrating on the lower drops and captive balls.

Update 2023: even in mid-2023 Embryon sometimes goes in the sub $3k range. Given the relatively low production numbers, I consider Embryon to be a steal compared to the "A-list" SS Bally pins of this era (the only three currently in the Pinside Top 100 are Fathom, Centaur, and Flash Gordon -- all from the following year: 1981 and some other Bally's of similar rating fetch much more: Frontier and Transporter). It may be half-a-step behind the A-list games, but it's a ton of fun!

classicgamefan edited previous rating on April 21, 2023.

8.022/10

6 years ago

SRC

Stormtrooper

Inactive member

Toronto, ON

7y 28,400 36 8 6

Alot going on and alot to shoot at. Interesting to unlock multiball but I wish there was some scoring benefit during multiball. Awesome artwork.

Stormtrooper currently owns this game.

7.346/10

6 years ago

TBK

xTheBlackKnightx

Pinside member

8y 128K 4,097 137

Back in the 1980s, this game was considered somewhat of a turd.
In some ways, it still is unfortunately.
This is NO Eight Ball Deluxe.
Today, it has gained more of a cult following similar to games such as Fathom and Centaur.
In the close follow up of the "Super widebody" concept of games like Paragon, in order to complete with Gottlieb titles such as Genie, but it did not fair anywhere near as well in the market.

Overall, the artwork is eye catching, but the gameplay is slow, even if highly waxed.
I don't know what people are talking about in this area, since I have owned several examples.
The ruleset is a bit confusing without doing some research.
I have always liked the double captive ball strikes in the center of the playfield and the drop target bank in the right corner.
Most people may not realize there were actually THREE different backglasses made for this game.
The standard production games had a deeper purple tone, the early productions a lighter red purple.
The prototype had a different center artwork from the original artist, Tony Ramunni, of Black Knight fame.

I have owned two different Embryons.
The first was a routed machine, with typical minor wear in the right corner inserts.
The second was a "infant mortality" perfect example game that spent less than 3 months on route before the MPU -35 blew up and it was put back in the box for nearly 15 years before I bought it out of a warehouse. Once again, different time, and lack of interest.
Just recognize what you are buying on this title, play the game first, you may not like it in comparison to standard width games.
Keep your wallet in your pants and evaluate.

This is not some "$3000+ game".
Most pinball "connoisseurs" agree with me, if they have been around for a while.

9.208/10

6 years ago

CHZ

Maskell

Pinside member

Greenville, SC

8y 34,400 16 9 34

Great game with beautiful art. Only downside is that the only game sounds are really just a repeated pulsing. Which does fit the game nicely, but doesn't really enhance your experience. Probably the best widebody of that era I've played

Maskell has owned this game in the past.

6.287/10

7 years ago

PVW

pascal-pinball

Pinside member

19y 92,075 1,590 255

Nice to look at, but not fun to play.
There are way better early SS pins...

8.659/10

7 years ago

JMS

jaemsdavit

Inactive member

7y 20,650 3 1 25

My favourite early SS. Lots of things to shoot for, a very interesting inlane/outlane arrangement, three captive ball features, a "mystery" award on the upper drop target bank, and multiball. The rules are surprisingly good for this era, and the ROM revision that doubles scoring in multiball fixes the only issue. I love the 80s sci-fi theme and the beautiful art style. The speech is very cool and the rest of the sounds are nicely done, with none of them ever getting grating (the background sound is nice and subtle). An underrated classic.

jaemsdavit has this game on the wishlist.

8.164/10

7 years ago

CDC

chris_silver

Pinside member

Hawkesbury, ON

8y 28,900 26 12 10

Embryon is a smorgasborg of things to shoot at and places to be. Widebodies can often be considered boring but just about any surface you hit has at least a 10 point score. I love the art, gameplay and futuristic sounds. Its so definitely a keeper in my collection.

chris_silver currently owns this game.

8.423/10

7 years ago

JES

john32

Pinside member

Kensington, KS

10y 49,450 155 86 45

One of the great early 80's bally games. I really like the widebody. there is so much to shoot for. great looking playfield. hard game to find.

john32 currently owns this game.

7.788/10

7 years ago

WPG

guymontag451

Wedgehead

Portland, OR

13y 92,800 1,006 25 170

Probably my favorite Bally widebody game. I love the sci-fi art package all around. Even the stencils on the cabinet are cool. Game layout is very unique with lots to shoot for. I also feel like this is probably the only widebody game of its era to properly deal with the added space at the bottom of the game near the flippers. Most widebodies are just kinda floaty down there and the flippers are usually farther apart creating awkward shot geometry. But Embryon nails it. Only downside is that it might be a tad easy. Love this game.

7.249/10

7 years ago

GTP

ptrav1

GoaTPinball

9y 66,300 577 33 13

Love the captive ball. Such a unique game.

1.195/10

8 years ago

???

mazzzulatoro

Inactive member

Riccione

12y 19,000 56

absolutely appropriate theme for a game.

3 Pinsiders flagged this.

9.574/10

8 years ago

XQZ

douggalecawitz

Pinside member

Naperville, IL

11y 62,900 45 85

I love wide body machines and this may be my favorite. Love the artwork. Back glass has that last 70's Logan's Run / early art of Atari feel to it. Playfield is loaded with sexy girls engaging in some sort of water based behavior? Lot of great shots, perfect for practice on other games. Just genuinely love this game.

douggalecawitz edited previous rating on September 21, 2019.
douggalecawitz has this game on the wishlist.

8.541/10

8 years ago

DOO

Doodbird

Inactive member

Easley, SC

11y 47,650 23 32

I like this wide body more each time I play it. It's not a snore fest if it is set up properly, and there is always something to shoot at. I don't see this one leaving anytime soon.

Doodbird has owned this game in the past.

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