(Topic ID: 118154)
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Fireball
Bally, 1972
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Plano, TX
So do you guys have full #455's in "Bally" "Fireball" and the actual guy? I currently have #455's not the "Eiko" Crap in "Bally" and "Fireball" I think when done in everything it is 14 or 15 bulbs. I think I need 7 more to have everything completely blinking.
1 week later
Question....I notice when the ball goes down the Wotan side roll overs it will sometimes open a gate to let the ball back into the shooter lane. What determines if this gate will open and let the ball go back into the shooter or if the ball goes back into play.
Quoted from o-din:» YouTube video
*grabs tissue*
Thanks man! That makes total sense now! 
It also gives me the decision if I want to put the ball in play or not. I would think that if I missed the skill shot on the initial ball, that I would try for the skill shot, if the other balls are rested on closed flippers.
Question for other Fireball owners. The plastic covers on the bulbs in the ball arch....(4 or 5 of them) Are they yellow or amber Bally Part # C-615 or Gottlieb part # GTB - 24410N...When I was ordering from Steve at PBR he said that Bally did not have amber colored ones in game sin 1972. Instead of arguing with him I ended up ordering 6 of each color both amber and yellow. His response was "It's your money!" Can someone take one of theirs out or be able to tell me exactly what color they are. Also how many bulbs are covered underneath the top arch. Is it 5 covers? 6 covers?
-Dan
So they were all red in 1972? I will have to look at some old footage of the machine from the 70's. They all look orange / amber. Can anyone else pipe in that remembers playing the game when it was new? Red would be horrible and would drown out the upper skill shot area.
1 week later
Quoted from o-din:Here's your throwback Fireball video rat. Not sure if it has what you are looking for though.
» YouTube video
That flickering #51 bulb is driving me nuts.
Nevermind. I put red lamp covers on all 7 possible lamps that are in the ball arch and it looks amazing to me. I like it better than the amber. The faded out original lamp covers were almost white from 43 years of use. I put amber ones in from PBR and they looked too yellow. With red ones it puts off a slightly pinkish hue but I really like it!
Quoted from Joydivision:They were red originally, I had a look at a photo of a Fireball playfield from the 1976 "pinball portfolio" book. You could easily see that they were definitely red. Book was published in 1976 so the pic of the playfield would have been only four years old or less when taken.
I owned that same book for 15 years (former library book) until I gave it to a fellow pinball enthusiast 2 years ago. Terry McGowan put together an awesome book for it's day. Thank you for sharing this information. I am going for the 100% original look of what a Fireball would have looked like in 1972 when it came out of the box and I am 99% there. The only thing left to address is my coin inserts and mechs. Right now I have them set with two quarter entry slots. (2 plays for a quarter) My serial number is #5154 so I am guessing my machine was made toward the end of it's run. I was told most Fireballs were converted from Nickel,Dime,Quarter because the dime would get stuck in the mechs and would be make for tons of trouble calls to distributors. I could do one of 3 things. I could change one coin chute to nickels (2 nickels one play) and have the other chute (3 plays for a quarter) with the middle unused. My second option would be nickel, dime, quarter. Converting the middle chute to a working chute would take some work from what I understand. Steve at PBR was rattling off a list of parts needed. 
My third option would be to leave it how it is. From what I understand most operators by early 1974 were converting Fireball to a "2 plays per quarter" and changing all mechs to quarters only.
Quoted from NicoVolta:Same here. Using yellow (amber usually looks too orange to me) + red tubing under the arch as original.
Exactly amber was too orange and red looks awesome (to me)
9 months later
Quoted from Cyrus:The photos don't do it justice as I took these during the day, but they look shit hot at night. Cyrus
Thats awesome man! One of these days I will try it out.
Quoted from xTheBlackKnightx:Yes, I know the Bally decal is not stock and offset from period, but it seemed naked without one.
I gave much thought to doing this myself but decided against it. Nice machine man! Looks like the twin of mine. 
Quoted from xTheBlackKnightx:Superb+ examples are very hard to find now.
My point is project machines are problematic, and you really have to take a close look of the potential.
"You can polish a turd to a high shine, but it is still a turd".
Agreed on so many levels. Another favorite saying I have is... "You can put lipstick on a pig but it will still be a pig."
Oh and this happened at Texas Pinball Festival! Best of show! Not bad for a 44 year old machine!
Our favorite machine is getting pooped on by some people. It is being called "Overrated" "boring" etc. Its time to get into that posting and post your true feelings about this machine. I posted a direct link below.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/fireball-ranked-35#post-3060256
Quoted from Ace24:I have mine at 40K, 51K, 62K, 73K (set on 5 ball).
Whenever I play, the goal is to get 40K. I do enjoy winning replays, even when the games are free.
Thanks for the info. I may just look into lowering it. I would like to get the replay knocker going more often.
5 months later
7 months later
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