No
Top 10 worst Bally in history.
Few rules, few shots, and not much fun.

The cabinet artwork is decent for this early 70's Bally e-m. All other artwork is pretty much a dud.

We didn't like playing it as teenagers when we played one back in mid-70's. Large outlanes and not much to shoot at on the playfield.
But we played it sometimes, because we could win free games on it, thus helped stretch our quarters to last a bit longer.

I think you'll find it just as fun to play with a jacket or towel layed over the upper & middle playfield, and to not cover lower playfield, so that you can see the pinball as it comes down to the flippers. We used to call that playing "mystery ball".

On Pinside E-M Pinball Machine Ratings, you will see that it is one of the lowest rated (least liked) e-m type machines.

Played one and see why he called it "El Boro" lol!

If the price is right why not give it a whirl. The nice thing about em pinball is you can try them out with limited risk. Sell it later if you find something you like better.

El turdo

If you are drawn to the name El Toro
try to find the Williams El Toro from about a decade earlier.
Better playing game overall and still decent artwork package.

I don't know about limited risk. It took six months to sell the last one I had - and for $125 working with new rubbers. Zizzle's are more fun.

This is literally the ugly duckling of the EM games, it's like a joke around here (or at least I make it one), it's very known for being godawful around the community and is frequently bashed/made fun of.

I would get one but it would have to be pretty damn cheap, in working condition, and decently nice. I got around half or more of my nice condition games for <$300, and I would sure not pay more than that for an El Toro, and especially not one in bad condition. Best of luck!

I've never played one and wouldn't buy it either. Well maybe shopped for $125.

O-din liked it back in the day. Probably for the same reason Pinball-is-great did. Any easy way to stretch a quarter. Cost him his Schwinn Stingray though.

I think O-din liked the 1963 Williams El Toro (I've been wrong before though). I find it hard to believe anyone could have fun playing this one.

I beat this game the first time I played it (not hard) and have no reason to ever play it again. Very basic and boring.

He owns one of those now. And yes he likes it a lot. I'm sure he'll chime in at some point. He was kind of the lone defender of the Bally at one time.

Heck usually the bad ones aren't as bad as everyone says and the good ones aren't as good. I found Chicago Coin's Top Ten to be about as fun as Gold Strike.

It is better than nothing, but not by much.

Well, that's encouraging - I have a Top ten festering in my storage shed. Maybe there's hope for it after all.

Take that comparison with a grain of salt. Actually it has some fun features, just way too easy.

I just finished rebuilding a Bally El Toro. All new pop bumpers, rebuilt flippers, and new slingshots. Actually plays pretty snappy. Plus when you get special lit you can keep getting free games!

Since we're talking about Bally Bull games, What's the thought on Dogies?

This one started out at $3000. http://www.ksl.com/classifieds/listing/42781679

Oh god now you've done it, Pinside is going to implode

A little worrisome when the big selling points on the front of the flyer are "triple tone chimes" and "new improved all-steel front door"!

How about "All New Cheaper (for us) Black Legs!

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I can't argue it's a good game but interestingly it's in the Top 300 Em list on IPDB. Right between Satin Doll and Magnotron. And it's on two people's Pinside want lists. And one on Pinballowners. I suspect it's merely mediocre not horrible.

I remember playing it back in the day in the 70's and it was about as fun as a Bally Flicker, not much. I would take Flicker over it so that tells you something. I guess I would buy a 1972 Bally El Toro though if it was a NOS brand new in the box for $100.00.

I remember that game. Should be many out there with minty playfields since nobody played it.

I have a couple of less than desirable games in my collection that I love. "Spin Out" and "Road Race". Guess any game set up properly is fun to play.

thats the key
in most cases

And an open mind. Some people here are so closed-minded it makes me sick, won't play anything that isn't Atlantis, El Dorado, or Neptune. I guess people like what they like though. I still shake my head at them.

F desirability. I have a mix of cliche-super-desirable, desirable, and generally undesirable machines in my collection. But that is meaning in regards to the pinball community. *I* love them all, and that is what matters, what you like. Especially the Williams games. They deserve more recognition. I keep buying them for peanuts, and I'm certainly not complaining about that, but they're just as great as wedgeheads if not better than some but since they don't bear the name and shape of Gottlieb they just passed by. More for me...

I laugh even harder when people try to bash games like my Strato-Flite and my Liberty Bell. I have a lot more fun on those than I do an Atlantis. Those two are some of the best multiplayers. Love 'em, and GREAT for multiplayer fun/friendly competition, especially Liberty Bell.

Indeed lots of game snobbery around here. That being said if a game isn't sought after by "collectors" you can probably get it cheap. Even if it's not top rated it's still pinball! Just take into account you'll probably find something cooler someday after you put a few hundred games on it and want to sell it again, so just don't lose your shirt and it's all good!

A family member who is not a pinhead has a Bally "Ro Go" in his basement. He got it for free, and it's nice cosmetically. Basically, he just wanted it so the kids could have fun with it. When I go to his house, I play a game or two, but walk away saying to myself that this has to be one of the worst pins ever. It's right up there with Bally "El Toro".

Really? Literally? Doesn't look like a duckling to me, ugly or otherwise!

Playing a "dog" pin is like drinking NA beer. If it's the only thing around, I'll have one or two, but I'm not really enjoying it!

(had to repost mine from IPDB...)

Poor old El Toro. Everyone's favorite example of a bad game, but is it?

Honestly, I like the artwork. It is distinctive and different. The predominant matador-cape red is true to the theme and complements the artwork well. The cabinet is on the smallish side and looks cute.

Standard Bally chimes are fine. Not as sweet as Gottlieb, but good enough to get the job done.

Gameplay? Well, honestly, it's not great, but not terrible either. The main complaints are the slowness of the double-top lanes and the lack of shots. Both true, but the game has good speed and flow... and worse games do exist by a long shot.

Example: Square Head currently has a decent 7.6 rating and is referred to as a "classic", "landmark", and "masterpiece" in the reviews. What is the goal of the game? Play tic-tac-toe by plunging, waiting, and hitting it back up again... and waiting.

"whee"

At the very least, Toro's got the flow... which is more than a lot of those top-rated Gottliebs do. A friend and I played several games at ReplayFX 2015 and enjoyed it well enough. Not a keeper, but let's give the poor bull a break. He's not half-bad.

(and certainly better than Ro-Go)

No comment.

Bottom line is you never know until you play it for awhile. I've had highly rated games (Jacks Open, Spin A Card) that bought, cleaned up and just never connected with. Not saying they were bad, just didn't like them enough to keep them long term. Space is a big factor for what I keep.

Also true that if you watch what you pay for it and how much in parts (my average PBR bill is about $100-$125), you won't really ever get hurt on the back end.

Yeah, if you were so plastered you would actually pay to play it! Always three ball multi-ball!

I think "Atlantis" and "Centigrade 37*" are overrated. "Liberty Bell" is a fun game. There's a lot that goes into why a game is desirable or not, beyond playability, but some games are just total "dogs" all around. Williams "Darling"/"Jubilee" are great lookers, but not much fun. "Spanish Eyes" and "Granada" are hideous to many (I think they look OK), but are both great players. To me, "El Toro" doesn't have a whole lot going for it at all, but if you like the art package, ok then.

It was Nico who likes the artwork of "El Toro", not Otaku.

These posts have gotten me interested in "El Toro". I will definately play the game the next time I get the opportunity.

It's kind of like the Kardashians, it's utter shit but when a bunch of people talk about you kind of want to talk about it too! (well, not me, but you get the idea)

Let's not bring that "Jiggly bag of Funk" into the thread

Tell you what! When El Toro first showed up on route, it was shiny and new and way more inviting than some of those antiquated games that were around it. And that's all I know about that.

I just wouldn't drive more than a block or 2....But please get back with your impression....

Okay, Ro-Go may not be everyone's cup of tea but how anyone could say it is worse than El Toro is beyond me.

I love how they both rhyme with each other

Let's not forget the 70's Chicago Coin games on the Hall Of Shame. The 60's games were pretty great but something happened in the Chicago Coin factory in the 70's - a magical spell where every game became a flaming pile of fecal matter! On a serious note, I wonder why their quality dipped so low from the 60's to the 70's. Twinky and Beatniks look really fun and eye-pleasing, and I'm not just pulling this out of my ass, lots agree that they were good in the 60's and in the 70's everything turned to shit, like a night and day difference.

No, but really, here was my first game. Chicago Coin's Showtime (picture shown is Dolphin, the two player version, playfield is identical); you lock 3 balls to gain an extra ball. That is IT. There's some bonus advance stuff too but not much else. They're also godawful in build quality, the internals are pretty bad. Do not like the steppers for sure.

Not sure I like the cabinets either. It was my first machine and I kept it in my bedroom but ended up covering it up when I didn't play it because it was... creepy? Dunno, just big and industrial looking I guess rather than the cooler commercial look of games from other manufacturers.

All in all, I keep it around (but 19 times out of 20 taken apart) because it was my first game but also because I will never recoup the $300 I spent buying it... It's really really plain but I can even have a little fun with it. Everything's always got a high score to reach for. Get an extra ball every ball and shoot for what's left sounds like a fun strategy to get a big score. Even if a game just had two flippers and a pop bumper - see how many times you can hit the pop bumper. That's how I look at it.

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So what was that again about "No-Go" and "El Boro"?