dpapclare's ratings

Fun machine to have in the collection. Frustrates everyone who plays it to no end, but they keep coming back for more!

Really has that one more game appeal and is ultra satisfying when you do finally get a decent score.

Overall, a great game in a larger collection. Would not want to own it in a smaller collection however. It's just a little to mean!

Great fun, really glad I saved one and cleaned it up. Won't be a forever keeper for me due to space, but if I had the space it would be staying. Super fun and challenging machine thats really uncommon. Zac honestly hit it out of the park here and somehow nobody noticed...

Great game, awesome spinner shot, fun rules that aren't too complicated for beginners to understand. Fits in a larger collection really well.

Incredibly fun to play, good rules, goos music, great art, Replay value is high, I always seem to not want to walk away at the end of a game,

Great game to play with friends. Deep enough rules for an early solid state that advanced players can enjoy it, yet the rules are easy enough for beginners to get a grasp on the idea that there is more than just keeping the ball alive. Completing deluxe is a fun goal to go for when playing alone. Chalk up!

My absolute favourite game ever! Always such a challenger and rewarding when you do well. Good scoring balance between the two playfield levels. Control is key and playing this game will make you a better player. Emperor Ming awaits!

Fun machine, great callouts, fun art, great scoring rules especially with the playfield multipliers in multiball! Get those spinners lit and you will be on your way! The bell is always a welcome feature.

Fun machine but once the targets are down there is nothing to really shoot for. Just wasn't a keeper for me.

Fun machine, enjoying it as a filler machine in my collection. Not a keeper for me but I am glad to have owned i and enjoyed it while I did. Would be a great machine in a smaller collection, but just doesn't hold up in mine.

Fun machine, one of the better parallel playfield layouts, knocking all the targets down is great. Theme is decent and the early SS chimes are awesome. Enjoy having one in my collection for now and is very popular with friends when they come over!

Really fun and challenging game, control is key and learning to control this machine can be frustrating but extremely rewarding when you get the hang of it. I think this is an underrated EM that deserves more attention and will be a permanent piece of my collection.

Fun machine in a larger collection, really great when you get the machine going, sounds and art is just fantastic and gameplay is decent. Overall an enjoyable game that I have no problem keeping in my collection for now.

Fun machine. Great rules and strategy for the era (either going for the spinner or cranking up the bonus) and decent lighting effects. Always though these sterns had the best effects of the era, still agree to an extent. The meteor smart targets are an awesome feature. Overall a great game that is fun to play alone or with friends.

Fun machine with that "just one more game" appeal. Frustrating on three ball but rewarding when you have a good game. Fun to have around, might not last forever in the collection but its a keeper for now.

Extremely fun and underrated system 11. Well loved by people who come over. When you change the centre ramp to make unlimited millions difficult and crank up the number of ramp shots to take highest score to 8, you have a great playing machine with balanced rules and fun objectives. The music is classic and the game is usually turned up quite loud. Overall, Police Force is a fun game that always leaves you smiling at the end of a game!

Classic Williams game that easily deserves the high ranking it gets. Tons of fun with great sounds. Fast gameplay for the era and lots of great risk/reward shots. The sounds are really the most impressive thing about this game. With a high quality speaker, this game just sounds fantastic and can send chills down your spine from time to time. I could see how this machine was such a hit when it came out, being the first SS machine with Multi-ball amongst the many other things to love about it.

Playing with friends on this machine is always fun, but the lack of lock stealing takes away that bit of risk there is involved with not absolutely making it all the way to the multi-ball start without losing the chance to someone else. Other wise, fun game to play with others.

Overall this is a fun game and it's easy to see why so many produces, between the sounds, fast gameplay and multi-ball its deserving of the title "classic."

This is such a fantastic game with so many things to love it's hard to even know where to start. The art package on this machine is probably some of the best I have ever seen. The back-glass is absolutely stunning in person and the cabinet art is great for the time this machine came out. The sounds and speech are fantastic and the use of a different background sound during multi-ball is something not often seen before this machine. The little demon post is a fun little strategic feature the helps balance the game when you have the in-lane/out-lane divider set up against you. The fireball bonus is great to watch and the complimentary animation on the displays are awesome.

As far as playing with friends. This is probably the only machine in my collection that sees more multiplayer games than single player. This is due to the fact that you can lock steal in this game and is a very effective strategy to go for. On top of that, when someone gets the multi-ball and the GI turns into a strobe light, everyone looking on as you play feels pretty great (especially in the dark)

Overall, this machine has so much going for it that I don't even know how it gets so overlooked in the community. A very affordable option for the kind of Bally quality that was coming out during 1981. A game that keeps me and others constantly coming back for more, this can easily be a budget centrepiece of a collection for those who are into early Solid State games.

Edit: Machine was great fun to play, but ended up being slightly repetitive, would own another one when I have more space, but it had to go for another machine. Will still definitely play one when I see one!

Really fun game, the spinners are excellent fun to shoot and the progressive bonus system is fantastic. The bonus counting unit in the backglass is a fun toy and alternative to your standard playfield style bonus. Another cool feature is the mystery bonus scoop on the playfield. What a great little innovative set up for a machine of this vintage. This game is super fun to play with friends due to the bonus having such a huge effect on score. When you finish your first ball, scores could be pretty far apart, but generally by the third ball, things even out and you regularly end up with close games that come down to the wire while everyone watches the last players bonus collect. A true players game that should be enjoyed by most who walk up to it!

This game seems to get a bad reputation around here and I am still trying to figure out why. While certainly being an extremely difficult game, the rewarding feeling of succeeding on this game in like none other. Out of my collection, this machine probably sees more play than any other due to the sheer difficult nature of the machine and its relentlessness to pre maturely end your game.

I could understand that if this machine wasn't waxed and set steep, that it could be a slow and boring game. But if it is set up properly, the ball can come back extremely quickly and the rollovers in the middle of the playfield can change the direction of the ball causing you to be on edge and ready to react to directional changes in a split second. The lack of sling shots also take a ton of concentration as you don't get that safety bounce back up the playfield and can drain with the right angle regularly. This means pre planning a nudge even before it's off the slingshot is key to keeping the ball in play. Next time you see this machine, give it a try and see if there's maybe a little more to the game play than what there appears to be!

Good bang for your buck! Fun game to play with a great spinner shot and some good pop bumper action. The scoops are fun and trying to get the ball in while they are lit for different rewards is fun. Scoring isn't incredibly balanced due to the 55,000 point award on the scoops and the drop target bank is completely useless for a home use game, but it is still great fun to play with friends as it is a continuous battle to see who can get the 55k shot! Artwork is absolutely gorgeous on this machine and it is certainly a looker. Overall a fun budget early solid state with a great theme and fun shots. Would reccommend!

Have owned this game for over a year now and it still hasn't gotten old! This challenging game is a ton of fun to play and a favourite in the household amongst friends and family. It's a bonus building game with drop targets and a spinner. While being a widebody, it plays quite quickly and there is a ton of horizontal action on the playfield.

The in-line dorp targets are a blast to shoot at and completing them to open up the loop to the scoop is fantastic. The kicker to collect your bonus mid-ball is a cool feature that was rarely used on machines, great creativity in placement and effectiveness there. Very underrated game in my opinion and that's probably due to the theme and low production run. Either way, its a pleasure to play and I would highly recommend playing it if you have the opportunity. I know it's never leaving my collection!

Update: Lpve this machine, has aged well in my collection, still gets played all of the time and has become a bit of a cult classic amongst the regulars that are over!

I owned this game for a short period of time. It's decently fun but there's far more randomness to it then I enjoy in a pinball machine. Other then the three stand up targets in the middle of the playfield, theres not really much to shoot for. Seems like you just have to fire the ball up either side of the centring stand-up targets and hope you get some good bounces. Really like the playfield and backglass art on the game and the theme is really cool. The tunnel is an interesting and fun gimmick but hard to master as a skill shot. The chimes are typical Bally (not great). I found myself getting bored of this game quickly as just firing the ball up either side of the plaayfield without aiming for anything specifically half the time gets a little boring. The 4 pops do make for some decently fast pace action in the upper portion of the playfield. In terms or technology with the gates, left side eject and the center post, the game seemed ahead of its time. But the fun factor just wasn't all there for me personally.

Sold mine and bought it back! Really enjoy this game a lot. The drop target banks are a ton of fun to shoot at and the 5k kickouts are great. Artwork and colours on the playfield and backglass are sharp. I think the tiger on the side of the cab is great but could have been better with a little more theming. Great Gottlieb chimes and collecting that double bonus never gets old at the end of a ball! Overall a great playing game with a good EM ruleset to say bon-voyage to the EM era. (Yes I am aware this is not the last em game produced.)

Gameplay:
This game is one of the few great 6803 games to come from the Bally Midway lifeline from '83-'88. The game has a grea set of rules and there are many shots to make. You don't always have to go for the same rule set to get points. Obviously the easiest way to get a high score is to go for multiball (2 or 3 ball) and get your jackpot. But you can also earn points by going for your multipliers and getting a huge bonus, collecting your weapons bonus, or dropping bombs to light the pop bumpers for 1000 and then 3000 points a hit (high action and close quaters pops). Ball locks also allow you to collect your bonus. So getting your 5x multiplier, filling your bonus (63k) and locking your first and second ball can be extremely rewarding.

Toys/Gimmicks:

This game has a couple great and unique features. The first one is dropping the bombs. When you collect your bombs by spelling out the word bomb (hit the B-O-M-B targets), you can then load them up to 3 at a time. Shoot the helicopter to drop the bombs over the pops. The pops make a great flashing animation and fire multiple times in a row making a great racket. Each time you drop a bomb it adds point values to the pop bumpers. the first 3 you drop light the 3 pops for 1000 and then for 3000 the second time.

The second great feature is the rockets feature. There are an additional two buttons near the flipper buttons that allow you to fire rockets which then take out single drop targets. This can be used as a great strategy in starting multiball as without the rockets it is difficult to light the release target to start multiball. A great addition that wasn't seen frequently.

The final great addition is the gated outlanes. Like centaur, this game has outlanes that you can save with some skillfull nudging. Usually it will cost you a tilt warning to save the ball, but it is a great way to keep your ball time going and get some great saving skills. A true risk versus reward feature if you have the game set up properly.

Sound:

This game has such bad sound its great. The theme music is awesome, but it would be even more awesome if it was longer than 30 seconds before going back to the crickets chirping sound. The sound quality is quite poor and the sound effects are so low quality 80's it just puts a smile on your face when your playing.

Artwork:

The theme is incorperated into the gameplay quite well. The backglass is a nice piece of handrawn art although most people probably wont like the Rambo style artwork. The playfield is also nicely layed out and not hard on the eyes. The lighting is so great on this game anyway that you rarely are even paying attention to the art. Unfortunately though, this game received the poor old 6803 cabinet art. Its not pretty, but its better than nothing I guess.

Overall this is a great game from the mid 80's that is really looked over due to what else was coming from other companies at the time. This means you can get it for a decent price and its a great game to have in a collection where someone doesn't have a huge budget, but wants a game with a decently deep ruleset, balanced scoring and competitive play that genuinely makes you a better pinball player. Hard shots, good rules and effective nudging can make this a great long lasting game. It's a keeper for me.

Game Play:
This game is a diamond in the rough when it comes to the masses of 70's EM games. It has a symmetrical playfield but can offer some suprisingly fast gameplay. With 8 easy shots right of of the flippers there's quite a bit to aim for. The big "toy" for this game would be the gated pop bumper centrally located in the playfield. Shoot the spinner and watch that ball bounce around all over the place in there for upwards of 10 seconds at times as you rack up points. Just gotta be careful because it can cruise out of the gated pop area and become a quick shot. There's also two captive balls, one kicker, 6 standing targets and two rollovers. For a symmetrical game, its quite fun and not as boring as you would think!

Rules:
The rules are pretty standard for a mid 70's EM. Build your bonus by making shots, shoot A-D to collect a double bonus, when you max out your bonus, the captive ball shots light for a special and the oulanes alternate for an extra ball.

Sounds:
Again, very typical Bally chimes on this game, nothing to exciting to speak of in the sound department.

Art:
I have to say the art on this game is quite awesome looking. Minus one thing, the backglass. It has an Australian Hunter Gatherer theme and its just kind of... wierd. There's a creepy old man staring at you the whole time your playing which can honestly be kind of distracting.

Overall:
This game is a fast playing game that begs you to play it one more time. Most people are underwhelmed when they see the playfield and are completely suprised when they play it and it rocks! Overall, as my first pin, I wouls say its honestly a keeper for me. It sits proudly with my other games

Two year update: This game is still in my collection and gets played all of the time. A true keeper that everyone enjoys playing when they walk into my house. Also seems to be extremely popular in tournament play!

Had an opportunity to play this game on location and found it to be very un appealing. Yes there were only 300 made and that's probably not a bad thing. I have played a few 6803 operating system games and they are very hit and miss. I think that this one is a miss and marked a low point in the Bally Midway life before being incorporated into Williams.