Rare prototype Atari??? (Bally Solid State Prototype)

Quoted from pezpunk:
Dude clean your camera lens, it's far grimier than that game!

What are you talking about ? Those are photos of actual game ? Pezpunk? You always bust my balls
What's your deal

#5 7 years ago

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ForceFlow

OP
Quoted from whitey:
What are you talking about ? Those are photos of actual game ? Pezpunk? You always bust my balls
What's your deal

Your camera lens has smudges all over it. It's a common problem with cameras on phones. Thats why the photos look a little burry and have a blooming effect. Wipe it off with a cotton cloth or tshirt, and that will take care of it.

#6 7 years ago

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ForceFlow

http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=1365&picno=35684

Looks like the displays are the same Futaba glass displays that gottlieb used.

#7 7 years ago

TOD

pinball4ever

Pinside+ Frequent

Madison, WI

11y 73,800 647 47

That is awesome, what a great find! I think it's funny how they just scraped off some paint on the backglass to get the displays to "fit" and then used some stickers for the 1-4 players.

Also, the lowest display shows "AM/PM" - must have taken it right out of a desktop clock, lol.

The boards below the playfield are really interesting, including a small board for each flipper assembly.

Such a cool find....

#8 7 years ago

TOD

pinball4ever

Pinside+ Frequent

Madison, WI

11y 73,800 647 47

According to IPDB, Kick Off was the last EM for Bally (which would make sense for the timing of the conversion):

"Notes: Last EM pinball machine by this manufacturer."

#9 7 years ago

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ForceFlow

http://www.fentonia.com/bio/

The boards on the underside of the playfield kind of remind me of the boards that appear in bally non-commercial games. I wonder of this system/game was the precursor to that.

#10 7 years ago

mswhat

Pinside member

9y 53,400 313

I saw Dave Nutting Associates and was reminded of the first microprocessor controlled Bally they did the prototype work for. Very interesting story behind it.
http://mirror2.ipdb.org/files/5103/Bally_1974_Flicker_Article_FOUND_The_First_Microprocessor_Pinball_Machine.pdf

#11 7 years ago

PEZ

pezpunk

iScored

Bristow, VA

11y 103K 7,008 4 20

OP
Quoted from whitey:
What are you talking about ? Those are photos of actual game ? Pezpunk? You always bust my balls
What's your deal

i apologize, man, i wasn't trying to be mean! i just meant your camera lens was so dirty it was doing a disservice to the game.

smudges (resized).jpg

all of those circled smudges appear in every one of your pics in the same place, and the images are somewhat blurry and smeared because of the grime. no offense intended! the game looks amazing and i'm following the thread with interest.

#12 7 years ago

BIF

CactusJack

Pinside member

Lake Forest, CA

10y 80,050 4,200 93

Maybe Jamie Fenton knows a bit more about it?

#13 7 years ago

MAT

snyper2099

Cincinnati Pinball

16y 103K 7,644

It's worth more than you think.

#14 7 years ago

BIL

dothedoo

Pinside member

12y 106K 7,265

Quoted from mswhat:
I saw Dave Nutting Associates and was reminded of the first microprocessor controlled Bally they did the prototype work for. Very interesting story behind it.
http://mirror2.ipdb.org/files/5103/Bally_1974_Flicker_Article_FOUND_The_First_Microprocessor_Pinball_Machine.pdf

That's what I thought of too. The "Bally Brain". Do you have more pics of the MPU?

#15 7 years ago

KRW

whitey

Blocked

Quoted from dothedoo:
That's what I thought of too. The "Bally Brain". Do you have more pics of the MPU?

I will open up head and get photos

#16 7 years ago

AAC

cudabee

flipperservice

Veendam

11y 65,300 346 161

Wow, what a great find. Thanks for sharing!

#17 7 years ago

LAD

skywalker

Pinside member

Rowville Melbourne

10y 85,900 1,616 2

Nice pick up Bud, can't wait for more pics

#18 7 years ago

GFY

Otaku

Inactive member

Unknown

9y 93,150 3,813

Could of also been a conversion kit that was sold? Not sure if the shoddy backglass rework screams "prototype" or "operator conversion". Very very interesting regardless.

#19 7 years ago

ZAC

zacaj

RPC

Rochester, NY

11y 158K 10,385 85 122 1

Very curious about those flipper boards

#20 7 years ago

MAX

mbaumle

Pinside member

Gloucester Township, NJ

8y 119K 4,200 18 32

Quoted from zacaj:
Very curious about those flipper boards

Literally thinking the same thing.

#21 7 years ago

TOM

pinballinreno

Computer Extreme

9y 134K 15,505 31

Dan Nutting might help with some info on this game.
I imagine he can be found and would like to hear a bit about it.

#22 7 years ago

BIL

racer_x

Inactive member

Zion, IL

8y 45,550 196 6 7

OP
Quoted from whitey:
Bought this kick off years ago and never really got into it.I started looking deeper into it and found a board inside the game with Dave Nutting Association who I believe is the guy who invented pong ? Check these photos out and tell me what you think ? It actually plays ! A EM game completely turned into a solid state, I'm guessing Atari used it before building games in Santa Clara CA which is where I bought the game , Don't know if it's worth anything but definitely a part of pinball History

Interesting.

Before starting Atari, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney did Computer Space for Nutting, but Pong was strictly an Atari affair.

Early on, Atari had a contract to build a pinball machine for Bally (which never came to fruition) and Atari"s Cyan think tank did convert a Delta Queen to solid state as a feasibility study before Atari started their pinball division. This is something else though, and pretty cool.

#23 7 years ago

BLY

MrBally

Pinside member

Paradise, NV

12y 141K 13,926 22 1

That's a Bally prototype SS machine. Before they settled on gas discharge displays and the Motorola 6800 Microprocessor. If the pinfixer.com website is up, there info about these rare pins.

Key post

#24 7 years ago

TBK

xTheBlackKnightx

Pinside member

8y 128K 4,097 137

Mr. Bally beat me to the history.

This is a Bally 1976 Prototype SS conversion of the EM game Kick Off.
It is not tied to Atari, and the PCB boards were used from various sources at the dawn of the SS era, not exclusive to use pinball or video games or the future Atari patents. Nutting did board work in conjunction with multiple manufacturers of the period.

This is not an operator conversion either.

Unknown number created, but I doubt more than a couple at the factory, as they scrapped the conversion decision.
Essentially, it was competing against other games of the same period 1976-1978 periods of which games might be used for SS technology as test beds of creation.

I don't even know if David Judd Nutting wants to answer questions about his company or dealings with Bally.
The man is in his late 80s, and I doubt "he has a PinSide account".
Bally shut down Dave Nutting Associates in 1984 permanently out of the cross technology lawsuit, which if interested can be found as this was documented.

The game is valuable in its own for history, more so than even a collector.
However, if 100% functional (including its UNIQUE displays), worth about 4X above basic EM value which would make it sit around $1800-2000 to the right early Bally person.
This essentially for a collector who wants to own something exclusively for the history.
For everybody else, $600.

Key post

#25 7 years ago

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ForceFlow

https://web-beta.archive.org/web/20050122212457/http://www.tstonramp.com:80/~pinfixer/pinpix.htm

Quoted from MrBally:
If the pinfixer.com website is up, there info about these rare pins.

Had to dig around a bit to find an archived copy:

It just has some later solid state games--not the early stuff like in the OP of this thread.

#26 7 years ago

BLY

MrBally

Pinside member

Paradise, NV

12y 141K 13,926 22 1

Quoted from ForceFlow:
Had to dig around a bit to find an archived copy:
https://web-beta.archive.org/web/20050122212457/http://www.tstonramp.com:80/~pinfixer/pinpix.htm
It just has some later solid state games--not the early stuff like in the OP of this thread.

The Kiss in the Web page archive has the same displays & board set. I've played his machine in the Pinball Shack in Temecula.

#27 7 years ago

KRW

whitey

Blocked

Quoted from MrBally:
The Kiss in the Web page archive has the same displays & board set. I've played his machine in the Pinball Shack in Temecula.

I'm not looking to profit from this find, I'd rather track down its history. Possibly donate to a pinball museum. Gooder pinball Carma !

#29 7 years ago

XEN

kursiv

Pinside member

10y 52,900 319

OP
Quoted from whitey:
I will open up head and get photos

Still looking for those keys?

#30 7 years ago

???

Homepin

Inactive member

Unknown

13y 77,400 2,125 1

Quoted from kursiv:
Still looking for those keys?

Found them........

Cordless-Drill-Full1 (resized).jpg

#31 7 years ago

JCD

dmbjunky

Pinside member

Odon, IN

8y 96,400 6,791 91

Please get some video of it in action. That is very cool. Is there any sound? I didn't notice any chimes.

#32 7 years ago

BOY

vid1900

Pinside+ Member

Sana'a

12y 164K 40,199 18

That's a great piece of pinball history you've got there!

I'd love to see some video of it playing....

Thanks for showing it to all of us!

#33 7 years ago

KRW

whitey

Blocked

Quoted from Homepin:
Found them........

Well its funny , because we have a large collection of pins since 1978 a Volley my dad brought home was our first game which we still have.I forgot that Bally EM,s have back Doors and two side clips to remove backglass! I was in a rush looked at the sides of cabinet no Key n lefted shop, because looking at the game I think SS ? At 53 , complete home remodeling, 4 kids , 3 in high school and swamped with work I apologize for not having pictures of the inside of the head.I will get back to shop asap for you guys,,im.just as curious!

#34 7 years ago

GFY

Otaku

Inactive member

Unknown

9y 93,150 3,813

PM sent. Thank you for sharing (and thanks to the others who chimed in with historical info and all that), VERY interesting!

#35 7 years ago

BOY

vid1900

Pinside+ Member

Sana'a

12y 164K 40,199 18

OP
Quoted from whitey:
At 53 , complete home remodeling, 4 kids , 3 in high school and swamped with work I apologize for not having pictures of the inside of the head.

Senior moment

#36 7 years ago

KRW

whitey

Blocked

Quoted from vid1900:
Senior moment

Senior moment is funny, but I can roll with the best
Take guys half my age n work em over on a job site with no sleep, Born in 1963, they don't build em like that anymore ! ( year of the spilt window) If it's a a beat I can dance to it , If it's got Hair on it I can Ride It !

These new pin guys don't know about pinball, ya gotta look back to move forward ,

#38 7 years ago

KRW

whitey

Blocked

I thought about donating it, after learning my daughters college costs, it's 4 sale now

1 week later

#39 7 years ago

KRW

whitey

Blocked

Got some more pics

20170414_142922 (resized).jpg

20170414_142910 (resized).jpg

20170414_142902 (resized).jpg

20170414_142910 (resized).jpg

#40 7 years ago

AMR

BigAl56

Pinside+ Frequent

Palatine, IL

7y 64,800 1,654

Nutting did several 1off conversions of e&m pins to prove it could be done. This looks like a prototype of the technology Midway used for the home Fireball game.

#41 7 years ago

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ForceFlow

Thanks for the additional photos.

I can see that you still haven't cleaned off your camera lens, though....

#42 7 years ago

BOY

vid1900

Pinside+ Member

Sana'a

12y 164K 40,199 18

That's great history!

Interesting that it took a decade for the industry to adapt to the #555 bulbs already in use here.

#43 7 years ago

TLZ

timtim

Pinside member

9y 89,300 2,957 8 7

Thanks for posting this

7 months later

#44 6 years ago

PGH

Pbpins

Pinside member

Pittsburgh, PA

10y 89,300 2,192

Did you get it running yet?

1 month later

#45 6 years ago

KRW

whitey

Blocked

This game is for sale, offers ???
Playfield is Mint

#46 6 years ago

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ForceFlow