ManyQuarters's ratings
Pinsider ManyQuarters has rated 2 machines.
This page shows all all these ratings, and forms ManyQuarters's personal top 2.
Rating comments
7.564/10
4 years ago
Played this game as kids on many a Saturday afternoon. Great fun!
The slot reels and post between the flippers can be really rewarding or challenging but just as equally devastating. Lining up those three wagons on the reels is awesome but scoring them and hearing that free game knocker…always a thrill! Oh, but that down post button or inadvertently hitting a target to change a winning reel combination makes for a nice balance of tension between anticipation/reward/gambling and trying again. Good looking pin with pleasant cabinet colors and love the red mid/upper playfield!
On my wish list.
The slot reels and post between the flippers can be really rewarding or challenging but just as equally devastating. Lining up those three wagons on the reels is awesome but scoring them and hearing that free game knocker…always a thrill! Oh, but that down post button or inadvertently hitting a target to change a winning reel combination makes for a nice balance of tension between anticipation/reward/gambling and trying again. Good looking pin with pleasant cabinet colors and love the red mid/upper playfield!
On my wish list.
8.211/10
4 years ago
Atlantis Bally, 1989
Bally Atlantis, a very good 1989 game, solid and underrated…beautiful too!
By the late 1980’s, innovation and consolidation (Williams and Bally / Midway) were helping pinball out of a steep recessionary slump, with Atlantis being a very early beneficiary of this:
Audio was greatly improved using the Williams System 11 audio board for its sounds and music. Additional speakers recently moved high in the backbox and directed at ear level were also an improvement. The background music is melodic, lively enough but not obtrusive and although callouts few, are both informative and seductive! Other sounds like the submarine alerts for the down post and drop target reset warnings are key for pacing game flow and never seem to be annoying. The whole sound package works just fine.
Illumination was greatly improved with Bally reintroducing, traditional backbox lighting, doing away with the single bulb (recessionary) effect of previous years. The blue and red (during multi ball) GI is amazing, a key feature of the game. The clear plastic submarine ramp / horseshoe is stacked in one corner out of the way and looks sharp lit with blue lighting from below. Experimenting with select LED illumination, yet retaining some incandescents on the playfield and translite can really bring out those dreamy oceanic colour shades. (I placed Fathom blue octopus caps on the original red finned, incandescent lit, bumper cap dishes…amazing aqua look!)
Cabinet artwork was vastly improving after years of generic corporate logos and it really shows on Atlantis. The giant sharks and colorful sea creatures circling around sunken Greek ruins on an inky black background are very well done, as are the gorgeous playfield plastics. The blending of blue, green and aqua colours on both the playfield and translite (especially with the timed wave flashes) is very appealing. Yes, the translite art is also outrageous and those scantily clad, high heeled, porpoise riding, trident gun bearing, Atlantian Babes guarding all that gold remain forever dated in all their Farrah Fawcett underwater hairdo glory!
Gameplay is solid and fun, more challenging than I was led to believe. The jackpot loop and escape hatch wire forms are nicely formed and out of the way. The timed drop targets, resetting with each ball keeps the awareness up when deliberating one task from another. A high score on one ball followed by sneaky little audio and visual bunching delays on the next will drain any game complacency away! Timing when to load the submarine for multiball is key and has left me submerged while chasing drop targets.
Well, in the end Bally Atlantis may not have everything that makes its 90’s Bally / Williams successors so great but it does positively represent pinball emerging from hard times, low production numbers and repressed innovation / artistry. After all, the very next Bally game was Elvira and the Party Monsters!
Caveat: This is my first pinball game but only after extensive research as a kid, procrastinating college student and recent Vegas Pinball Hall of Fame gambler (sunk $80 but found Atlantis!)
By the late 1980’s, innovation and consolidation (Williams and Bally / Midway) were helping pinball out of a steep recessionary slump, with Atlantis being a very early beneficiary of this:
Audio was greatly improved using the Williams System 11 audio board for its sounds and music. Additional speakers recently moved high in the backbox and directed at ear level were also an improvement. The background music is melodic, lively enough but not obtrusive and although callouts few, are both informative and seductive! Other sounds like the submarine alerts for the down post and drop target reset warnings are key for pacing game flow and never seem to be annoying. The whole sound package works just fine.
Illumination was greatly improved with Bally reintroducing, traditional backbox lighting, doing away with the single bulb (recessionary) effect of previous years. The blue and red (during multi ball) GI is amazing, a key feature of the game. The clear plastic submarine ramp / horseshoe is stacked in one corner out of the way and looks sharp lit with blue lighting from below. Experimenting with select LED illumination, yet retaining some incandescents on the playfield and translite can really bring out those dreamy oceanic colour shades. (I placed Fathom blue octopus caps on the original red finned, incandescent lit, bumper cap dishes…amazing aqua look!)
Cabinet artwork was vastly improving after years of generic corporate logos and it really shows on Atlantis. The giant sharks and colorful sea creatures circling around sunken Greek ruins on an inky black background are very well done, as are the gorgeous playfield plastics. The blending of blue, green and aqua colours on both the playfield and translite (especially with the timed wave flashes) is very appealing. Yes, the translite art is also outrageous and those scantily clad, high heeled, porpoise riding, trident gun bearing, Atlantian Babes guarding all that gold remain forever dated in all their Farrah Fawcett underwater hairdo glory!
Gameplay is solid and fun, more challenging than I was led to believe. The jackpot loop and escape hatch wire forms are nicely formed and out of the way. The timed drop targets, resetting with each ball keeps the awareness up when deliberating one task from another. A high score on one ball followed by sneaky little audio and visual bunching delays on the next will drain any game complacency away! Timing when to load the submarine for multiball is key and has left me submerged while chasing drop targets.
Well, in the end Bally Atlantis may not have everything that makes its 90’s Bally / Williams successors so great but it does positively represent pinball emerging from hard times, low production numbers and repressed innovation / artistry. After all, the very next Bally game was Elvira and the Party Monsters!
Caveat: This is my first pinball game but only after extensive research as a kid, procrastinating college student and recent Vegas Pinball Hall of Fame gambler (sunk $80 but found Atlantis!)
