Flicker is an okay EM game. There's a lot better ones, and certainly a lot worse ones. There's not a whole lot to shoot for but the horseshoe shot is satisfying and who doesn't love ripping a spinner to build the bonus? A precise hit is needed to send the captive balls to the top. Scoring is fairly easy and straight forward. Luckily there is a 100,000 light as rolling it isn't too difficult on 5 ball play. Mechanically the game plays fine if the machine is in good working shape. The art is pretty cool on this one - I like that even Frankenstein made it on the playfield of celeb faces! Backglass resembles an old movie theater look. Just wish there was a little more to shoot for on this game. The center is mostly open and the top is taken by 2 captive balls and a horseshoe shot with a pop bumper in the middle and a spinner.

I won't call this playfield creative because it is symmetrical, but the upper third of it is certainly unique. A real snoozfest.

Flicker is an interesting game from Bally. one thing that made it even more interesting, is that this was the first game that was converted from electromechanical to solid state. There's a story about this test SS game floating out there on the interwebs.

The good:
A very challenging layout that essentially cuts to play field in half. Similar to many games that we see today like creature from the Black lagoon or the Black Knight sword of rage. if you miss a shot, you're in trouble and those out lanes are very hungry. shooting for the ABCD targets on the sides is a dangerous necessity for big scores on this game. Double bonus is huge, and this reminds me of a number of different designs that show this feature both new and old. Jim Patla is a great designer trained under the watchful eye of Master Zale. The cadence of the bonus count makes me do the happy pinball dance.

The bad:
the captive ball shots dominate every strategy in this game. Build your bonus and collect specials. 15k bonus comes very quickly unless the lower star rollovers aren't disabled. This also means the game can be very easy to get extra balls or extra games on depending on the game's settings for special. Best played in a 3-ball format as compared to the usual electromechanical 5 ball game. The spinner and the pop bumper garden are negligible in relation to the real scores on this game. This effectively makes the entire center third of the game's playfield not worth shooting.

The takeaway:
An unusual theme that pays homage to films long gone by. The 4 player game (boomerang) has an even more unusual Australian Aboriginal theme. While many won't even recognize the old movies and music stars of a Time gone by, Laurel and Hardy hold a prominent and easily recognizable place on this design. This game should go quite nicely next to a Sonic prospector.

A demanding layout that when tuned properly, is a real player.

Unique layout draws you in and takes some getting used too. The captured ball skill shots are key to scoring big. For the newest generation of pinball players the actors are pretty hard to figure out but some of the key ones are of coarse Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, WC Fields, Mae West, Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable, James Cagney, Bela Lagossi, Lon Chaney, Errol Flynn, Edward G.
Robinson and many more.
Pros: theme with lots of silver screen actors/actresses that are slowly being forgotten, unique layout, easy to learn, a few challenging shots. Cons: bonus maxes out too fast, saucer up top is a bit pointless (be a good spot for an extra ball), no drop targets. Must have for an old movie buff.

I know many people are very fond of this game, but I honestly don't remember playing it much at all back in the days when it was out on location, and my reaction to it as a player's EM game based entirely on recent plays is much more muted (and perhaps less nostalgic).

The theme is old-timey movies, with a variety of stars depicted. I find the backglass to be a bit weird, just the characters splashed across, with a start of dark marquee-like concept. The playfield is a little more successful, with the feel of the lights of a marquee laid out. Also I think the slang term "Flicker" was not only obscure in the 70's, it was obscure by the 20's! (Replaced by "flicks"; the "flickers" were the first generation of hand-operated movie projectors causing the characteristic staccato, slightly irregular flickering.)

That said, although there are a lot of shots required in this game and a bonus goal to work to, I find the top playfield to be too closed and the bottom playfield merely a rebound ground. The two captive balls on either side are definitely skill shots, but the recovery from a successful or an unsuccessful hit is equally random. And the inner orbit loop is so hard that it's virtually out of play for any game of length. So one is left picking out safe shots and working very gradually. I'm just a little bit flat on the game play - it plays more like a carnival game than a pinball...no flow.

Question: was this a licensed theme game -- were the estates of the actors depicted compensated? I have always kind of wondered about this.

Grew up playing this game... the scoring countdown is great has it has many skill target shots (double bonus is awesome). Great older game and always loved the backglass artwork. The game was built before all of the music and animations.

I am biased to this age Bally machines, but Flicker is one of my favorites. The flow is excellent and the shots varied. Building up the bonus is great fun as is listening for that big countdown on the drain.

Not a great single pin in a collection, but a fun one to add as a second or third. I haven't got a chance to play the 4-player equivalent in Boomerang, but it looks like another good choice with a vastly different theme.