Does anyone know for sure what was the first game after the Bally Williams merger to have the Bally logo, and what was the first to have the Williams logo?
My guess is Truck Stop for Bally and Banzai Run for Williams, BR being the first overall...
Can anyone verify that, or give more definite info...?
Thanks!
Quoted from Indypin:I'm thinking Scared Stiff is one of the first Bally pins that used the Williams name on it.
Williams/Bally were already merged by then. They merged in the late 80's if I'm correct.
But they still put each name out. I have a Shadow from 93 which is Bally and a Totan in 95 which is Williams so they still used both names.
I think Revenge from Mars was the last Bally branded table, so what was the next release?
This may not be what you're looking for though
looking at ipdb, I guess it would depend on what detail you were looking for.
It looks like Atlantis was the first "Bally" release after the merger.
Quoted from kwiKimart:According to the Pinball Compendium 1982-Present, Blackwater 100 was the last machine produced by Bally before Williams took over
That ties in with my understanding too... Truck Stop was the next Bally branded machine after Blackwater 100, so that makes Truck Stop the first merger game with the Bally logo... and I think Banzai Run was the first Williams logo game, which came out just before Truck Stop...
Quoted from Indypin:I'm thinking Scared Stiff is one of the first Bally pins that used the Williams name on it.
Errrr... 
Blackwater 100 was the last game produced by the Bally/Midway plant. Everything later than this carring a Bally logo is a branded Williams game.
It doesn't make sense to speak of these as "Bally" games, when talking about the difference between the manifactures. Boardsets, mechanics, flaws etc. If somebody say Williams flippersystem is the better one. Of course that goes for any post 88 Bally labeled machine as well.
To start with, the Bally labeled machines had their own backbox design with speakers atop and alpha-num displays side by side. But eventually they where streamlined with Williams. CFTBL perhaps being the first.
Quoted from soren:To start with, the Bally labeled machines had their own backbox design with speakers atop and alpha-num displays side by side. But eventually they where streamlined with Williams. CFTBL perhaps being the first.
I noticed that too, but TAF was the first Bally branded game with the 'normal' speaker at bottom game... funnily enough the next 'Bally' game was BR, which had the speakers at the top again, and after that they were all at the bottom... Williams branded games never had the speakers at the top design... strange how in the early days of the merger, all the Bally named games had this different design backbox... you'd have thought they'd have standardised that earier on than TAF... maybe it was to confuse the public into thinking they were still two different companies... Marketing strategy perhaps...?
Regarding the chronology and design strategy of TAF vs BR, I believe there can be 100 reasons for it.
The Lawlor team refusing to have the speakers atop?
TAF changed to the Bally mark late in design and after translite drawing completed? (Although being a licensed theme, it fit the strategical usage of the Bally brand)
A stock of "Bally" backboxes / speaker assys sitting there, making it wise to do one last game in this fashion.
TAF actually started later than BR and after the streamlining was decided.
The Trudeau teams having a specific desire for the "Bally" style.
There exists video footage of Doctor Who on test with the speakers-high backbox design and different translite art. That's where the lost plastic is supposed to go.
Interesting.
The introduction of (higher, more narrow) DMD made the "Bally" backbox all the more obsolete.
Quoted from soren:The introduction of (higher, more narrow) DMD made the "Bally" backbox all the more obsolete.
True, it does look a bit silly on Gilligan's Island and BR! The reason they were more suitable to the Bally way before DMDs came was that the scores on the Bally a/n games were side by side, so much slimmer. The Willims a/n game were above one another, so the score display area was the same as a DMD anyway...
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