This is my wife’s 1972 Bally Fireball machine. She bought it around 1987 from a (now closed) arcade shop called Home Amusements in Rockville, Maryland. The back glass is beautiful and the playing field and play action are in good shape. I recently cleaned the playing field and replaced the bumpers. We played it for about a year when we first got it and then moved and didn’t have space for it. I lent it to a friend…. But he basically kept it as a static showpiece in his basement and didn’t play it (his wife didn’t like pinball). I recently got it back and have been working with a local pinball repair guy to get it rolling again. It didn’t take much.

The play action is really nice and active. I put a video up on Youtube so you can get a sense of the condition.

You can find that here:

Like most EM machines, this needs tweaking at times. If you’re interested I can go over its idiosyncrasies. It’s a fun machine with lots of bells (literally) and whistles. There’s a large gong/trolley type bell for 100+ points indication and a smaller one that is more of a ringing/buzzer/alarm kind of bell for lower points. In checking some online videos, I’ve noticed that a lot of the machines just have the one larger bell connected (or none).

As much as we LOVE this machine, we still don’t have room for it. We’d rather it go to a good home where it will be played and cared for. I’m willing to ship, although in that case I’d prefer the buyer be able to work on the machine since shipping can loosen wires and connections. If you’re a local buyer (DC/VA/MD), you can come and check it out and test everything before buying… and I’ll put you in touch with my repair guy for maintenance and checkups.

I’ll happily send better photos and answer any questions.

I’ve seen some people pooh-pooh the play action of the EM Fireball and I would say… BS. This is a “flow” kind of machine. You can play it once and the balls just don’t do anything and you might score 2000 or less. Then the next game, it just takes off. You get multi-ball and bonuses galore… and the action moves all over the field and next thing you know you’ve got 50,000+. Fireball won’t give you anything… you have to work for it. And with the zipper flippers… you can catch the ball and plot your actions. It’s a skill game that takes thought and planning. Do you go for more top action and bumper points… or go for multi-ball? It adds strategy that the two ball captures don’t reset upon player change. If you load a ball in and don’t use it… the next player just might. Then there's that damn spinning disk. It's like a drunk in a bar... you don't know if he's going to be friendly or a complete a**hole.

Anyway, let me know if you’re interested and we’ll see what we can work out. I'll accept offers.