So in my case, I paid a little more than I wanted but I'm very happy with Fathom. I have a mix of old and new games and I have to say that this machine has something special that appeals to me differently than all the others. Everybody has their own opinion of course, but it's value is pretty much what you make it in regards to what you want. The good thing about pinball is that if you change your mind in a few months or years you can sell or trade it to get most of your money back or even make a profit.
Good luck with your decision!

IMG_20201123_202612220 (resized).jpg

I would also put Fathom on the top of my list for classic Bally / Stern games. To be honest, it isn’t the best playing of the time. In my opinion Seawitch is a better playing game with a similar theme. The problem is that Fathom is probably the sexiest looking game made of that era. The color pallet and art package is just sooooo good. It is the crown jewel of most collections and because of that, it isn’t going to go down in value.

I like Bally and Sterns the most as well but Blackout is a good game for the value especially if you like spinners and orbit shots. Not the best ruleset but still a cool space theme with Williams sounds, voice and fun to shoot. "Orbit completed!"

I don’t blame you for holding off on Williams until 85ish High Speed, when they completely blew away all other machines from that point, all the way through 1999... even though there are a lot of good Williams titles from the early 80’s, there are only a few that feel epic to me. Bally/Stern had a better percentage of great machines from 77-84.

I've had tons of Firepowers and there was never any "playfield sag," not a common issue.

A common issue however is the arrow inserts warping up...I had one so bad you couldn't hit the spinner because the ball would rocket up into the spinner bracket. I flattened it out somehow.

Some of the best Williams games from the early 80s are sadly some of the harder ones to come across (due to low production) like Barracora, Warlok, and Solar Fire.

Warlok's layout is identical to Blackout. Does it have interesting rules or improve on anything or is the main appeal it's rarity?

Why no love for Medusa ?

Warlok's rules are different than Blackout (more similar to Meteor actually) and the playfield is tweaked just enough to make them shoot differently as well. It's a super game.

I'll field this one!

Terrible game. It's all about the dumb upper playfield.

Really do not like this one. At all. Cool art but that's not exactly in short supply on classic games.

In agreement here. Looked forever for a Medussa and when I finally found one it got boring quick. The artwork is incredible but the gameplay gets very redundant. Great skillshot though!

What do the targets on the left & the drops on the right do in Medusa? I seriously have no idea and I've played the game 100s of times and literally played it Monday night.
EDIT: Jesus it's even on my wanted list.

I think they add "units" to that center pop up post thingee?

All I know is I hate that game!

They also have to do with the two readout numbers in the center of the playfield. I'd love someone to write new code for this game. It is a *bit* one note with the upper drops now, but it could have a lot more potential. The playfield is still a bit closed off, so the rules would probably still be limited, but it could certainly broaden your approach. Regardless, I like Medusa. Certainly not my fav of the era, but...

It all boils down to personal preference.
Anything can get old. And will.
I dont keep these to play 10x a night.

16159409387464959360133392863301 (resized).jpg

Same goes for me with Nitro Ground Shaker. Great backglass artwork but the playfield art and game play are disappointing for sure. I bought a glass and hung it on the wall and sold the game off.

John

Oh Jesus...you're the guy with the studded Centaur. LOL! Most of my pinball playing involves too much alcohol to be up close and personal to that many sharp objects.

I bought a Medusa playfield off Kruzman for the same reason. It will live on in my collection that way.

Yeah this era is a sweet spot for my collection. I grew up in arcades as well so definitely has the nostalgia factor there, but I find I also collect for a variety of other reasons as well. So Fathom is on my list, but mostly because I think its just a gorgeous game. For a game that I think is a player, I think a good way to look at it is to think about what games do I not only play at home, but at friends houses as well. Top three games I gravitate to at home and away are;

Nineball
Paragon
Seawitch

Other games from that era that I don't own, but like to play at shows are;

Future Spa
Ali
Harlem

Don't get me wrong, Fathom is a great game, and if it makes you happy, I'd go for it. But for a bang for the buck proposition, and weighting long term playability more heavily, I think there's better value out there.

Fathom, as attractive as it is takes a close 2nd place to Xenon in my opinion.

Fathom is the best classic Bally you don't own. If you feel like swinging the cash go for it. Personally I feel it carries a steep premium because it is generally considered the best game from 81, but it is still on my eventual want list. Probably around the time it hits 10k.

Other suggestions... Play Stars. I'm also extremely partial to Mata Hari. It is definitely not the most sophisticated pinball machine, but it is the pinball equivalent of comfort food for me. When I come home trashed from work, a few hours on Mata Hari seems to put things right. I probably have a bit of nostalgia for it since it is the first SS game I got back to running.

I am an artist. To me, pinball is not just art. It was never intended to just be art. Some pinball has good art but unfortunately Silverball Mania, Xenon, and Space Invaders are all pinball machines with good backglass art that all play bad, and I mean really bad! None of the 3 are worth playing. Now, if you played the backglass...

And no matter how much you want pinball to be about art, it’s not just about that, it’s about playing good pinball and if it has cool art, that is a plus... If it was solely about being art, you wouldn’t play it, you would just observe it.

I don’t mind horrible pinball art as long as it plays fun... I mean why is the object there??? Not about the art. It works one way but not in the other direction very well.

Oh, and Mata Hari is fun but a few friends of mine have one I can play so I don’t feel like it’s a must own game for me.

In some ancient tales, nymphs pursued young men and would not take “no” for an answer. Some nymphs were downright dangerous. ... Nymphs attracted by his beauty lured Hylas away and abducted him. In another story, a young Sicilian herdsman named Daphnis pledged his loyalty to a nymph.

Moral of the story: If you encounter a sea nymph while diving, say "yes" if you want to live.

Aztec is close!

Looks like someone is about to have their heart ripped out and shown to them before they die as a murder sacrifice !

I recently picked up a Fathom having never played one prior. I didn't love it at first, but it's growing on me the more time I get on it.
Sometimes it feels a little slow and floaty then a couple seconds later, it's speedy and chaotic, especially with both multiballs going.

Other than a quick memory search, I didn't research the murder aspect of other games at all. But if you cant come up with something other than Fathom that pretty much confirms it for me.

That's the fun part for me. Not only to get both multiballs going at the same time but to then re-lock or attempt to re-lock both balls during it and keeping the third ball in play.

I have plenty of games in my collection to choose from so I don't play Fathom all the time or even that frequently. But when it calls to me I love having it here as do my friends.

Does Whodunnit? count? After all, it does say “A Murder Mystery” right on the translite lol, and the dmd art has a variety of situations happening.....

Bon voyage has someone falling out of a plane. We can only assume he was pushed!

Deadly weapon features a hostage situation. We know somebody is ending up dead !

Fathom has the best upper flipper. Catching the ball on it and making your shot is so sweet.

Whodunnit was the first one that came to my mind too. But there's nothing in the translite or on the playfield artwork that applies.

You crack me up Levi.
Pretty sure Levi knows this but for others that might not. That body falling out of a commercial airliner was supposed to have been DB Cooper, a mystery accomplice and a duffel bag of money. Or so the story goes.

zzzBackglass (resized).jpgzzzzimage-4 (resized).jpg

Alice Cooper has a girl in a guillotine on it.

8E5A8CBE-40D9-453D-8A10-490D53BF38CB (resized).jpeg

Great thread by the way. A buddy pointed this thread out to me yesterday. Really interesting discussion.

Vehicular manslaughter on Nitro Groundshaker.

5dd8e8bb49c7308dc0a96b92cf6db05b4da0ae1f (resized).jpg

This game poses an interesting question:

Is it the only pinball backglass featuring muffin top?

I appreciate the murder game guesses but consider this. The main action in the Fathom backglass is a murder in progress. And that artwork carries on to the entire playfield concluding with the guy being drowned in the bottom out hole. All of that artwork combined makes Fathom's *theme* about a murder.

Snippets of artwork out of context from other games doesn't count. Fun stuff though.

Aztec man! At least it's in the same ballpark.

That poor virgin is about 10 seconds away from watching her own heart beat its' last as the life drains from her eyes!!!

Not exactly a picnic!
azz (resized).jpg

Aztec is a murder/suicide theme. Here he is drowning in the out hole.

zzzimage-31 (resized).jpg

This is EXACTLY why i have some of these playfields as wall art...including Fathom

Skateball

What? You don't get Xenon. Once you get the horseshoe on SBM is too easy.

I’ve been following along - waited till I got home today to play mine and comment.

Playing it reminds me why I bought it. It’s awesome!

I got mine in 2017 at TPF. I’d been looking for one for ages, even back then ones with playfield wear were selling for $3500 on Pinside ... even up to high threes.

I saw this one at TPF - an older guy had it right down the back (next to Heighway Pinball and their Alien) and he had a $6500 tag on it. It had been fully restored by Keith Holbrook, restored original playfield, mint BG, all new boards, new displays, restored cabinet. So paying $3500 or more for an average one, or slightly more for one with all the new parts paid for and all the work done was a no brainer.

I jokingly said to the guy, if it’s still here at the end of the weekend I’ll give you $5 grand for it. He sorta laughed ... everytime I walked past, I said “want my 5 grand yet?” “Not yet”

Right at the end of the show, I went up to him and said “ready for my 5 grand?” “Yes”

So me and Nimblepin are driving around every ATM in Dallas making the maximum withdrawals on all my cards ... the bank in New Zealand rang me on my mobile and said “someone’s emptying all your accounts!!” Lol

Anyway — it was $5000 ... 4x more than I ever spent on an older machine ... and it was $5000 well spent.

Fathom is one of the best of the Ballys. It’s got 2x inlane drops, 2x bonuses, good speech, good rules, double inlanes, awesome art ... what else could you want?

Yeah - it’s expensive. But I don’t see them going down in price any time soon.

rd
69183D8D-32F5-46D3-944B-04B967D635D3 (resized).jpeg

Great story, Dave.

The short answer is yes.

The game play is unique and wasn’t repeated like a lot of games of that era. The coding of the game is more advanced for the time and details like combining the left and inline drop targets in the code make for some interesting game play.

If you have the means, it well worth the pickup

You should have a Xenon in that collection 100%. I think Xenon has the best background sounds (and voice) of any early SS pin. Combine that with beautiful artwork, good gameplay and a price that’s 1/2 of Fathom and you have a package that’s hard to resist.

Xenon is currently the only early SS in my collection because it embodies every thing I loved about arcades in the early 80s.

Fathom was my first pin, I think I got it around 2002, paid less than a grand for it. Is it worth it? I've owned a bunch 80's bally's, all the ones the op mentioned and Fathom is my favourite by a wide margin because of the combination of art, sound and game play.

Whether it is worth it or not is entirely up to the person spending the money I suppose. My tastes have changed in the almost 20 years I've been collecting pins and I prefer newer games with more to shoot for and deeper rules but I'll always have soft spot for Fathom.

I carried around my original Fathom playfield for years and years hoping to do something with it one day... I ended up selling it and then acquiring another one shortly after to complete a Fathom project I had long since dreamt about... I hope to have it finished in the coming weeks and then I will always have a Fathom at the house, it just plays a little differently than the original
Fathomcaster (resized).png